Monkey Doodle
by Lady Quickshift
Summary: Story picks up towards the end of "Savage Lands". Mandarin is back, and secrets are revealed about the silver and orange monkeys, along with "Spova". Main Pairings: Spova, Chinmay,Mandarin-x-OC, Gibson-x-OC, Antauri-x-OC later and Sparx-x-OC-x-Nova love triangle. Rated T for dark themes and language, later chapters will contain mpreg.
1. Chapter 1

Monkey Doodle

Disclaimer: I own nothing except my OC's, if I did own the monkey team things would have been much different. The story picks up where Antauri names Nova third in command at the end of the "Savage Lands" episode

Rated T for dark themes and swearing.

* * *

After the Hyper Force defeated Valeena and drove the Dark One Worm back through the portal it came through the temple had begun to collapse. Sensing the Super Robot was somewhere nearby, Antauri used the Power Primate to summon it and they all fled.

In their haste to escape, No one saw something had fallen from the beast's maw on its way out. The tiny creature now lay curled up on his side, stirring like he was having a nightmare, until his beady orange eyes opened.

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Back at the Robot, Antauri had just stated that Nova was third in command, causing Sprx and Gibson's jaws to drop as Nova strutted past them to go talk to Jinmay about how her training has been going.

As soon as she was gone, the two monkeys turned on their second in command.

"ARE YOU SERIOUS?!"

"THIS IS ABSURD!"

Antauri looked serious and crossed his arms, steadfast in what he said. He turned Otto "Otto, how did the team fare when Sprx took the lead?"

The green monkey scratched his head. "Uh, not very good, he and Gibson just argued the whole time so he wasn't really in charge very long,"

"And did Gibson fare any better?"

"No, Nova was the one who kept us going until we found Chiro,"

Antauri looked back at the blue and red males that looked like they were about to start bickering again. "I imagine so, which is precisely why she is third in command and not you two,"

Nova came back with Jinmay "Yeah, I thought we figured that out already but apparently we have to spell it out in big neon letters for you,"

Sprx was about to make one of his usual snarky comebacks when the robot was shook by a violent force.

Otto jumped over to the computer and was rapidly typing at the control panel to bring up a visual. What they saw was something they never thought they would see again.

"_**Mandarin?!"**_ Sure enough, Mandarin was out there getting ready to unleash another "Monkey Fu" on the Robot.

"I thought that guy was Worm food?" Sprx had wished his former brother would just _stay _gone for once.

"Apparently not, Sprx. Alright team, Monkeys mobilize!" Chiro, Jinmay and the monkeys went outside since it was obvious he was alone and outnumbered by the seven of them.

Once they exited out the opening that formed in the Super Robot's chest, Mandarin shot at them.

"Monkey Fu!"

The team was scattered in every direction, Sprx and Nova landed in some trees, Otto crashed through a shop window, Gibson went into a nearby duck pond in the park and Jinmay smacked into Chiro, both of them trying to stabilize the other until they crash landed on the Robot's feet.

Mandarin went after Nova only to be attacked from behind by Antauri. When Mandarin turned around to see the silver monkey and froze, he was shocked. "How…?"

The team saw Antauri facing Mandarin alone and rushed to help him. "Hold on Antauri, we'll be right there!"

The two monkeys stare at each other, not believing they are seeing the other in front of them. Mandarin recognized who was really in front of him. "Antauri? How can this be? You were destroyed! And the Silver Monkey was a failure!"

Antauri readied himself to fight. "If at first you don't succeed…"

Mandarin suddenly grinned like he had another trick up his sleeve. "My thoughts exactly,"

He drew his sword and lunged toward his old friend who activated his ghost claws and deflected the blow before turning to his ghost state and drifting away phasing through a nearby bench when the orange simian-turned-formless flew over with his jet pack and struck again, embedding the blade in between the back rest and the seat.

Mandarin tugged his weapon to get free, only managing to wiggle it. "Oh, well played, Antauri…" Seeing as the bench wasn't bolted down, with a loud war cry he swung his arm hard to hit Antauri with the bench, freeing himself and sending the silver monkey flying into a lamp post, knocking him unconscious.

By the time the rest of the team finally got to where the two were Mandarin had already taken off with Antauri in his arms.

Chiro saw the orange monkey activate his jet pack and take off with his mentor. "NOOOo!" he ran after them but they were already well into the air and his jet pack was damaged in the fall.

The other monkeys saw he was heading for the Savage Lands and went after Mandrin leaving Chiro standing helplessly where he stood until he collapsed to his knees and landed on all fours. Jinmay tried to see if he was alright but he didn't really hear her.

His friend, mentor, his… Antauri was the only father he had ever known and the crazy orange monkey took him from him, _again, _just when he got him back and there was nothing that Chiro could do about it.

He started shaking as tears pricked his eyes. "I'm sorry, Dad,"

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The Monkey team chased Mandarin but they lost him when he dove into the thick jungle. Mostly because Otto crashed into a branch which swung back and hit Sprx, knocking him off course and disorientating the red monkey.

Gibson and Nova turned back to make they were alright but Sprx waved him off. "We're fine, Brain Strain, get Antauri!" the blue monkey nodded and rocketed after Nova while Sprx went about removing Otto from a tangled heap of vines.

Nova was furthest ahead because she went back to the chase as soon as she saw her teammates were uninjured, which was no surprise she soon caught up to Mandarin, but something wasn't right.

While she was supposedly gaining on him he looked back, a wild grin split his face as he sped up, only to slow down when it looked like she was falling behind, almost as if he were waiting for her.

Eventually, she caught up to them and activated her fists to reach out and grab her elder brother away from the eldest that betrayed them, only for Mandarin to reach out and grab her arm with his tail. Pulling her along, he started flying wildly in aerial acrobatics.

Nova screamed as she flopped around like a rag doll, a terrified chill racing up her spine when Mandarin chuckled softly before flying straight again at break neck speed. "If you wanted to come with, Dearest Nova, all you had to do was ask. After all, the more the merrier and all the _fun_ I have planned will be even better with you there,"

The look on his face and the pheromone smell that came off the orange monkey as he laughed his grating laugh told Nova just what kind of "Fun" he had in mind. Instinctively, she bit down on his tail until blood and other life fluids filled her mouth and his grip lessened, allowing her to break free and pull away in disgust.

Gibson arrived then and activated his drills while Mandarin slowly turned to them, growling. "You little yellow bitch!"

Sprx and Otto got there with their weapons ready and hovered beside the blue and yellow monkeys, ready to fight to the finish.

The orange monkey looked around and realized he was outnumbered, but then he remembered he still had Antauri and that creepy grin came back.

"At least I still have this prize," for extra measure he looked down traced a thin bony finger down the side of Antauri's blank face. "Oh, the fun we will have, _my pet_!" he cackled again.

Sprx had had just about enough of this guy. "Not gonna happen, freak!" he and the others launched themselves forward but Mandarin released a "Monkey Mind Scream" and stunned them.

Mandarin hovered in mid-air to laugh at his fallen siblings and contemplated what he was going to do next. "Hmm, I can only take one at a time. I'll secure the one I have and come back for the rest. Just you wait, my brothers, it won't be long now…" he chuckled darkly and took off before any of the monkeys could wake up and stop him.

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After what seemed like hours, Chiro and Jinmay came in the Super Robot to where the team's signals were and found them collapsed in a heap.

"Monkey Team! Are you guys alright?" The monkeys all slowly came back to their senses and realized what just happened.

"Sorry, Chiro, he got away," Chiro grit his teeth and looked down, his fists clenching with the need to hit something, preferably the orange monkey's face.

"Don't worry, kid, we'll find him," Sprx pounded his fist into his hand for good measure "and while we're at it I'd like to give Mandarin a piece of my mind,"

"Get in line. Now are we going to stand around and talk all day or are we going to do something?" Nova sprinted for the Robot with the others hot on her heels.

"Hey, Nova, what's the rush?" Sprx laughed nervously "It's not like you love him or anything… is it?"

Nova looked at him "Yes, I do, actually," Sprx felt like he just swallowed Formless goo. "And you, and Gibson and Otto and Chiro and now Jinmay. We're a family why wouldn't I love you guys,"

Sprx almost let out a sigh of relief but quickly hid it as he and the others went to their places to drive the Robot to go after Antauri.

"Besides, I have a pretty good idea what he might have planned for Antauri and I don't want to leave him alone with that monster any longer than we have to,"

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When Antauri awoke, he was in a strange cage with electrified bars that criss-crossed to form a grid on one side. He and the rest of the monkey team had been inside such enclosures many times in the past. '_It would seem my enemies will never learn…_' he reached forward to try to use his claws to slice his way out only to stop short, Antauri's hands were bound by thick chains that glowed with an eerie pale aqua light.

The chains were infused with a dark magic that made his powers useless and he couldn't break them or phase through them. Determined to not give up, he rattled the chains to try to shake them lose.

"Don't waste your energy, these chains were made to withstand anything,"

Antauri jumped, he _knew_ that voice from somewhere, but he couldn't quite recognize it. "Who is there? Identify yourself,"

"_Antauri,_ Is that you?" The noise of rattling chains off to the side of him alerted Antauri that he wasn't the only one in the room in a cage.

Across the room, a large metal panel that was propped against a stack of broken empty cages glowed with a black-green aura of the Power Primate as it was turned to reflect the inside of his cage as well as the one placed next to him, which contained…

Antauri gasped "That's impossible…"

* * *

_**A.N.: This is my first fanfiction story that isn't all Transformers. What do you think? Reviews, suggestions and predictions are welcome. Any flames will be stomped on by the Super Robot.**_

_**Hugs and Mugs,**_

_**Lady Quickshift**_


	2. Chapter 2

Monkey Doodle

Rated T for swearing and dark themes.

Warning: there is a part of this chapter that contains slash-rape which will be marked with an author's note in _**Bold Italics like this**_ at the beginning and end of it, skip that part if you are sensitive to such topics.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my OC's, this is purely fanfiction, they would never let crazy "Doodle" like this on the actual show.

* * *

Chapter 2

In the reflection across the room, he saw two cages, one held himself and the other held another robot monkey, this one was orange with dark eyes, he looked just like…

"Mandarin?" the orange monkey nodded, he looked just like he did all those years ago when he was still on the team, except he looked beat up and was covered in grime but it was definitely him.

Antauri could barely form a coherent sentence. "But…How? I saw you out… you look just like you did before…"

The Mandarin in the cage held up a hand to silence his brother. "No, that was a clone you all saw, one created by the Skeleton king to infiltrate the team to learn our secrets many years ago,"

Antauri took a moment to calm himself "Mandarin, what happened to you?"

"It's a long story,"

Antauri settled down against the metal back of his cage "Well, it doesn't seem like we're going anywhere for a while,"

Mandarin smiled and began to tell his story.

*Flashback*

_Mandarin was out on patrol alone, he wanted a chance to clear his head after he and Antauri got into an argument—_Antauri couldn't even remember what they argued about_—so he was scouting an abandoned sector on the edge of the city, close to the Zone of Wasted Years while the others checked the more populated areas, Antauri was with Nova and Sprx rather than with him as the black monkey usually was. Just before he was about to head back he contacted the rest of the team._

_:Torso Tank 1 to Hyper Force, this is Mandarin, this sector is clear. Everyone finish your routes and head back to the docking area.:_

_The team voiced their affirmatives so he was about to close the link when something very big landed on top of Torso Tank 1. Bringing up a visual on his screen, he saw he was being attacked by unusually large Formless warriors._

_:Whoa, Scratch that, I'm being attacked!:_

_Antuari's calm voice floated through the comm. line :I have a lock on your location Mandarin, we are on our way. Monkeys Mobilize!"_

_:Hold on, Mandarin!: That was Nova, even if he couldn't see her Mandarin knew she was both anxious to save him—as she would any of her teammates—and eager to beat up some Formless Minions._

_Speaking of which, some of the slimy creeps outside had managed to break apart the hatch on the roof of his Tank and reach inside to grab him. "Hey, keep you're slimy mitts off me!" he lost control and hit a pile of boulders, flipping Torso Tank 1 on its side. This crushed some of the mutated Formless but it also made it easier for the remaining ones to drag him out and knock him to the ground, beating him until he lost consciousness._

_When he came to he was inside a cage like the one he was in now, on the Citadel of Bone. "Ah, it seems our __**guest **__is finally awake," Mandarin turned to see Skeleton King in front of him._

"_SKELETON KING!" Mandarin launched himself forward only to be pulled back by his chains._

"_Ah-Ah-Ah, Careful, Try to attack me, little monkey…" he raised his hand like he was grabbing something and started strangling the orange monkey telekinetically "…And you will suffer for it,"_

_Mandarin clawed at his neck as he and the cage were lifted closer to the Lord of the Undead. "Th-The others… will come for me… they will stop you…"_

_Skeleton King laughed evilly. "Oh, but that's the thing, little Mandarin; as far as they are concerned, they already have,"_

"_What…"_

_Skeleton King summoned his TV Monster to show images of the monkey team storming into the Citadel of Bone and carrying him out to the Robot. _

"_Three months after my Jungle Guardian Formless captured you and brought you here your friends did find where you were on my ship, but what they didn't know was that during those three months I was able to make a perfect clone of you and leave it for them to find while you were inside a stasis cell in another part of the Citadel. I allowed them the false victory of boarding my vessel and rescuing their "comrade" all to lure them into a false sense of security and place one of my own pawns in their midst. Now I that I have the perfect spy right under their furry noses I can infiltrate their defenses and destroy them from the inside out."_

_Mandarin growled "It won't work; your little spy doesn't have the access codes,"_

"_Oh but he does. See, while you were in stasis, I was collecting not only DNA samples to construct the clone with, I was hacking your mainframe and downloading any information I found useful and uploading copies of it to your clone's mind. Your friends will not be able to see the difference and even if they do, I have programmed the clone to do whatever it takes to keep our little secret safe, even if it means making the monkeys believe your "capture" has changed you for the worse,"_

_Skeleton King sat down on his throne "Now, let us see what your 'Evil twin' is up to now," _

_The screen changed to show the Super Robot's control center from a monkey's point of view. After that, Mandarin watched his clone go about living HIS life commanding HIS team with seemingly flawless precision, until eventually it started to slip up. Mandarin hoped, and prayed, that _someone _would notice, but no one, not even Antauri saw through the ruse, they really thought it was him slowly slipping away until it was obvious they couldn't keep him around and neutralized him, sending him to H.O.O.P. prison._

_Mandarin smirked at him "Told you it wouldn't work,"_

_Skelton King sneered down at him "Yes, but while I may have lost a single pawn, your brothers have come to believe you have betrayed them. If they were to see you again, all of them will think you are the clone, escaped from prison, and they will get rid of you. Even if you were able to make it out of here alive you wouldn't last long. Nowhere to go, no one to turn to,"_

_*End Flashback*_

"So I was stuck on the Citadel of Bone for a while, but eventually my clone came back after capturing you all. I was in the cell next to yours; all I can say is this, my brother, hearing all your screams and being unable to do anything about it was enough to wrench my very soul but knowing you all thought it was actually me doing it made me wish it was me in there instead. Then your boy… Chiro, is it?"

"Yes, the boy's name is Chiro,"

"Hmm, sounds like a great kid. Any way when he came and got you all with the Super Robot he also took out a wall on my cell so I flew out and wandered through open space until I found a passing star ship, occupants of which were cybernetic monkeys not unlike ourselves,"

"There are others out there?" Antauri thought the Alchemist only created them. Then he remembered, back on Coralla Dahl there was...

"Yes, turns out our creator based our design on an actual alien species of cybernetic monkeys from a dying planet; the ones on this ship were among the few survivors,"

He then talked about how this other group of monkeys who welcomed him onto their little team, one in particular.

"Artemis was the one who convinced the others to allow me on board, she tended to my injuries and cared for me in ways no one else had in a long time and we got to know each other." Mandarin stared off into space like he was picturing his favorite fantasy. "She was a beautiful lavender monkey with black accents where ours were white—kind of like you have now—and gray eyes. We came to love each other and eventually took the step and became mates," the way Mandarin spoke of her he obviously loved her very much, each word was soft spoken and laced with affection as if he hoped she would hear his sweet nothings wherever she was.

"Sometime after that we had a little girl; she was just as beautiful as her mother. We named her Eclipse because she was the 'silver lining' around the darkest part of our lives,"

Antauri honestly couldn't picture Mandarin with a family of his own, but if he treated them with the same love and devotion with which he spoke of them, he must have been an amazing father.

"When she was born we convinced the rest of the team to come to Shuggazoom, because we were traveling throughout the galaxy and it was taking its toll on all of us, we all needed some sort of stability. But we got about as far as Ranger 7 when Skeleton King's forces found us. They hadn't located the others yet so, in order to keep everyone else safe, I turned myself in telling them I was alone and they believed me. The last thing I saw before I was taken was Artemis watching me from behind some rocks with tears in her eyes and Eclipse asleep in her arms," He paused for moment to control his breathing, trying not to cry.

"I have been here ever since… I only hope they were able to get to safety," When he calmed himself enough he looked over at their reflections so they could see each other. "So, how have you been?"

Antauri told him about all the adventures with Chiro and the others and how they have included Jinmay in the group now and everything he had missed since he was gone.

By the time he got to the chain of events that lead to their current situation he ran out of things to talk about and his voice was hoarse.

Mandarin nodded sagely "As I said before, Chiro sounds like a great young man, I wish I could have been there to know him,"

Antauri placed a hand on the wall that separated them, knowing Mandarin sensed this and returned the gesture. "You will, we WILL get out of here eventually, Mandarin. Tell you what, I'll introduce you to Chiro if you promise to introduce me to Artemis and Eclipse next you see them,"

Mandarin smiled "Deal,"

Then a door slammed open and three Jungle Guardian Formless came in, two stooped in front of Antauri's cage the third held some sort of device that had two sparking prongs on the end.

"Mandarin, what's going on?"

The clone came in and answered before the original could. "Oh nothing much, Antauri, just need to see you in the other room for a while,"

The real Mandarin became livid in his cage, thrashing around, screeching and snarling, trying to get free to protect his brother and exact revenge on the one who made his life hell. "Antauri, stay away from them. That thing they have is an EMP generator, it will short out your cybernetic systems,"

Antauri shrank back in fear, if they shut him down in his robotic body without the safeguard of biological body parts there was a good chance they could kill him. The clone turned to the monsters standing by the cages "Take the silver one. Hurry up, we don't have all day,"

The one holding the EMP generator aimed it at Antauri and fired it. With a low hum of Antauri's robotic body shutting down, everything went dark as he collapsed in the cage with a loud _clank _and the real Mandarin shouting his name.

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Antauri woke up, slowly bringing his systems back online—thankfully that wasn't a powerful enough blast to cause any lasting damage—in a dimly lit room with a painfully bright light directly above him. Looking around, he saw that the room itself was not much different than a medical lab, and that he was strapped to an examination table with metal shackles made of the same material the chains in his cage were.

He started to struggle when an eerily familiar voice came from behind him. "Oh, good, you're awake," Antauri turned to see the Mandarin clone step out of the shadows. "_You!"_

The clone snickered and came closer.

"Don't come any closer, I'll…"

"You will do nothing!" The Formless monkey pulled a lever that sent small electrical shocks through Antauri's frame, stimulating him with both pleasure and pain. Antauri involuntarily cried out and bucked off the table until the orange simian turned it off. "Lovely little machine, isn't it? I originally had this set up for Nova, but since she is just out of reach for now, you will have to do,"

Older-brother protectiveness came over Antauri as he glared at the monkey he believed for so long was actually his own brother. "N-Nova? What were you going to do to her?"

"Oh, don't worry, she will get her turn soon enough, but I seem to recall a particular piece of information about the silver monkey from our creator's old recordings,"

With nothing better to do, Antauri decided to be patient and "go with the flow" and hope the team came for him soon.

"Well, you see, Antauri, as you know the silver monkey was built completely robotic, therefore there was no reason for the Alchemist to assign it a specific gender, making it asexual. That would mean it either had the qualities of both genders or neither of them at all,"

Sudden realization hit Antauri right where his stomach should have been. "You mean…"

"Yes, Antauri, you have been given a body that is male but can also bear offspring,"

"But that is impossible, I am made entirely out of metal, there is no possible way another cybernetic monkey could grow inside my body the way you are implying,"

"On the contrary, much like how our master created us as simple simians and gave us robotic implants, you can be grafted with living tissue for our little creations to draw on. I have already taken the liberty of giving you some grown from DNA samples taken from your old body while you were unconscious to get things started,"

Mandarin slowly started removing the silver monkey's armor. "and until I finally get my clutches on that infernal female monkey, you will act as my sole means of bringing forth a new generation of robot monkey warriors."

Antauri saw what the evil Mandarin was trying to do and doubled his efforts to get away. "No, No, please…"

The evil one just laughed. "Begging already? I thought you would have waited longer than that, though I don't think this is the particular begging I would have liked," Once the armor was removed, the clone cast it aside and forced Antauri's legs apart, clamping them in place.

Antauri tried to release a "Monkey mind scream" but a gag was forced into his mouth. "Forgive me for being so _kinky_ on the first time, but I don't want anyone to hear us,"

Out of sheer desperation, Antauri used his communicator to send out a distress signal to the Super Robot and the team before Mandarin—no, this was _not _Mandarin—climbed up on the table next to him and tipped it back so his head was lower than the rest of his body, making it near impossible for him to try to sit up as a metal plate was pried off of his lower body, allowing a chilling draft to reach his nether regions.

Antauri struggled, trying not to cry, as the clone removed his own lower armor and cod piece and positioned himself over Antauri. "I am so going to enjoy this,"

_**AN: this next part contains yaoi/slash-rape, please skip this if you don't want to read it!**_

Antauri cried out around the gag as something was forced into an opening in his body he didn't know he had, and was pretty sure he _shouldn't_ have.

He grunted and gasped as he was thrust into repeatedly, the motions pushing his body around slightly as evil Mandarin's… you know… struck a sensor node inside the opening that was hidden below his own piece that caused something inside him to heat up like a blaster charging to fire and send energy coursing through his systems like a wildfire. He bit down on the rubber strip the gag was made out of until it snapped, leaving him free to scream profanities or just scream.

Just before he climaxed, Mandarin leaned closer to whisper in Antauri's audio receptor. "By, the way, I've already picked out who I want our little warriors to target first. I hope you're not too fond of that boy, I know he irritates me to no end,"

Antauri cried out, both out of fear and anger over what his enemy just said and because the sensations caused his systems to overload, which soon sent him into a shutdown.

_**AN: Okay, they're done, you can look now!**_

Mandarin's clone had completed his business and put his armor and most of Antauri's back on when the room was rocked by an explosion.

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_Inside the Super Robot with the Hyperforce_

Otto and Gibson were at the computers trying to trace Antauri's signal while Sprx and Jinmay sat in the bubble chairs watching Chiro and Nova pace a rut in the floor. Sprx was actually wondering how they didn't bump into each other going in different directions like that.

"Kid, Nova, calm down, we'll find him. Somehow I don't think making yourselves and the rest of us dizzy will help anyway,"

The two snapped out of their drone-like stupor and looked at him. "Sorry, Sprx, We just can't stop worrying about…"

Jinmay saw they were upset and got up to pull them over to their chairs, sitting next to Chiro in his. Without really thinking about it, Sprx got up and pulled Nova over to his own chair rather than letting her go to hers so he could put an arm around her. Nova didn't protest, she just let him comfort her.

"So… what did you mean when you said you thought you knew what Mandarin was going to do?"

Nova shuddered and unconsciously leaned against Sprx, not seeing him blush slightly at the contact. "When I tried to grab Antauri he grabbed me and said he had some 'fun' planned for Antauri and it would have been 'so much better' with me there. When he said this he had that same look he had when he…" her voice got quieter "When he tried to take me as a mate before he went bad,"

Sprx tightened his grip protectively, he remembered when that happened. That was one of the first signs he was slowly slipping away, had Antauri and Sparx not walked in when they did there was good chance Mandarin would have forced himself on her.

"Hey, don't worry, we'll find him," then they realized how close they were and both of them blushed, wondering whether they should move apart or remain as they were.

"I found something!" Everyone jumped up and ran over to Otto. "It's faint but I'm pretty sure it's his tracking devise.

"I'm getting something as well," Gibson looked closer at his screen "It's a distress call frequency coming from Antauri's communicator, originating from the same general area as the signal Otto has found. It appears as though Antauri was taken back to the lab where we were created,"

"Then let's go find him, Monkeys Mobilize!"

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The team parked the Robot where they did last time they were there and ran straight to the opening to the Savage Lands and flew to where Gibson's newly repaired tracker told them to go. They were able to find the place more quickly than last time because they knew where everything was.

Sprx tried the door but it wouldn't open for him. "What the hell? The door's locked," he braced one foot against the doorframe and pulled as hard as he could, adding both feet for more leverage until his hands slipped and he fell back. "Grr, Now how are we going to get in?"

Chiro walked up and placed his hand on the door, which sensed the Power Primate in his aura and opened for him. Nova smiled up at him as he let her and the others go in first "Come on, are we going to stand around out here all day or we going to go kick Mandarin's fuzzy orange butt?" she slammed her fists together for emphasis before rushing inside the labs.

Chiro was about to follow them through when suddenly he sensed something was wrong, a flux in the Power Primate hit him hard and he fell to his knees as if he were punched in the gut. "Chiro, what's wrong?" Jinmay and the monkeys all surrounded him as he slowly tried to get up.

He could feel Antauri's pain and fear as if it were his own, just as he did at the Veron Temple. "We need to find Antauri, _NOW_!" he ran where his "monkey sense" told him where Antauri was. The others followed him and they came to a trap door behind the tubes where the monkeys were created, which lead to a set of dark stairs.

Otto leaned down into the whole to peer into the darkness. "Wow, it looks dark down there. You think Antauri's down there?"

Chiro didn't think, he somehow _knew_. "C'mon," he ran down the steps, the others following close behind. Close to the bottom of the stairs, they heard screaming coming from down the hall. Chiro stopped to try to locate where the screams were coming from, only to be bumped into by Nova, who got ploughed into by Sprx, taking Gibson down with him. Jinmay jumped over the pile up only to trip and land on her side next to Chiro.

"Whoohoo! Monkey Pile!" Otto jumped on top of the squirming mass of bodies. Nova and Sprx swore colorfully before the red monkey got into an argument with Gibson about whose fault it was, Otto giggled despite the situation and Chiro and Jinmay tried to get everyone to be quiet while they untangled themselves.

Once they figured out whose limbs were whose and were separated again they heard the screams again and took off down the hall to find their teammate, they were now certain it was his screams they were hearing.

They found a room that was being guarded by Jungle Guardian Formless that held large bones like bludgeons. Chiro sensed Antauri on the other side of the guarded door and that the disturbance in the Power Primate was strongest here, it was enough to make him sick.

Chiro's eyes glowed green as he stepped out of the shadows, growling like an animal. "MONKEY FU!" the black-green blast obliterated the guards and crumbled the door like it was cardboard that got wet. Nova activated her fists and punched her way through what was left of the door making an opening for everyone to surge through with their weapons ready.

Mandarin turned and saw them enter. He snarled, drawing his weapons. Chiro saw Antauri strapped down and unconscious, parts of his armor seemed to be torn off; something snapped inside the boy, revoking his animal-like state of mind from before. "GET AWAY FROM HIM!" Chiro launched himself across the room and tackled Mandarin off the operating table and onto the floor where the two wrestled like animals; hissing, snarling and scratching and biting anything that came within reach.

Sprx ran over and held out his magnet hands. "Hey, Kid, outta the way!"

Chiro rolled over and as soon as he was clear the red monkey pressed his magnets against the other monkey's body and sent a high voltage jolt through him before changing them back into his own hands so he and Chiro could take turns punching him.

Nova looked over at the others "Gibson, Jinmay, get Antauri out of here," She run over to where the boys were fighting and jumped on top of the mob shouting "PILEDRIVER!"

The two hurried to the silver monkey's side, Jinmay worked the controls on the side of the table to lower it evenly down to the ground and release his restraints while Gibson checked his brother over for damage. Antauri flinched away from the touch "It's alright, Antauri, it's just me. I'm not going to harm you.

Otto came over and turned his hand into a blowtorch "Here, let me help," he welded Antauri's armor back into place where it had broken off.

Antauri slowly started to open his eyes. "M-Mandarin…"

Jinmay held his hand "We're not going to let him hurt you anymore, Antauri. Chiro Sprx and Nova are dealing with him right now,"

Antauri weakly shook his head. "No, that was a… a clone… the real Mandarin was never evil. He's in the next room…" he passed out again before he could tell her more.

His voice was so quiet the other two monkeys were too focused on their work to hear him but Jinmay turned to the other door in the room that he had pointed to before his arm went limp and was placed back on the table by Gibson.

Careful not to distract anyone from fighting or fixing she went over to the door and opened it. It was locked so she used a special kick that Nova taught her to break the lock and push the door open. The room held an eerie atmosphere, like a poorly kept dog pound at night.

Cautiously, she walked into the room, looking around for anything that might jump out at her. "Hello, is there anyone in here?"

"Who just came in?"

Jinmay followed the voice to a couple of small cages, one was open and looked like something was dragged out of it the other was closed with a tray of untouched molding food in front of it. She came around to peer inside the closed cage and saw a robot monkey she had never seen before, this one was orange and had dark eyes, he looked like he had been in there a while.

She crouched down to seem less threatening and smiled at him "Hi, I'm Jinmay. What's your name?"

The orange monkey looked at her like he didn't believe she was real at first and smiled back "Oh, so you're Jinmay, Antauri has told me a lot about you," He raised himself up to his knees and bowed the way Antauri did when they first met. "I am Mandarin, the _real _Mandarin. It is a pleasure to meet you,"

Jinmay smiled sweetly at him "The pleasure is mine," then she got a better look at the cage and the sorry state he was in and her face became sympathetic "How long have you been here?"

"From what Antauri told me I was put here about a month ago,"

Jinmay's eyes widened "Oh, you poor thing. Don't worry, I'll help you," she went for a closer look at the cage.

Mandarin watched her warily "Why are you helping me?"

Jinmay found an electronic lock and turned her finger into a tool to try to hack it. "Antauri told me you never were evil, that it was a clone doing all those bad things to everyone. I was used by Skeleton King to get to Chiro when we first met so I know how it feels. Just because everyone's mad at you for something they think you did doesn't mean we should leave you behind,"

She shocked herself and pulled her finger out of the lock. "Ouch, how did Otto do this again?"

Remembering the layout of the cage from all the time he spent in it, Mandarin leaned over as far as he could so he could see the pink haired girl. "Jinmay, if the lock is giving you trouble there should be a small power box on the wall above the cage, can you see it?"

Jinmay stood and went around to the wall and found a gray converter box that had a thick power line leading to the cage. "Yeah, found it,"

"Alright, if you can shut it down the cage should open. Just be careful, I don't want you to get hurt. I'd cut myself out but these chains are rendering my powers useless,"

Jinmay opened the box but couldn't make sense of what was inside it. She was about to close it and go back to the lock when something caught her eye; there was an opening in the back of the cage that Mandarin's chains were pulled through to attach to the wall and she got an idea.

"Wait here, I'm going to try something," She went to the door to the room where Gibson and Otto were building a make shift stretcher to carry Antauri on and the other three were happily beating the Mandarin clone into a pulp. Careful not to look at the gruesome violence her boyfriend and their friends were displaying, she went over to Otto and Gibson.

"Hey, guys sorry to bother you but do you have something I could use to cut through a chain?"

Otto looked up at her "Why would you need to cut a chain Jinmay?"

"There's someone in a cage in the next room and they're chained to a wall, I'm trying to get them out,"

Otto got up and activated his saws "Lead the way, Jinmay,"

Jinmay lead Otto into the next room and showed him the chain. "He says he can break out of the cage on his own but not with those chains,"

Otto crawled to the back of the cage and looked behind it. "Oh, now I see it," he knocked on the side of the cage "hey, buddy, I'm going to cut the chains now so be ready to get out,"

Mandarin chuckled "I have been in this thing for long enough, I am more than ready to get out of here," he pulled on the chain to make it easier for the saws to cut it until he was able to pull his hands free. "Finally!" he pulled the chains off of him and drew his sword to cut through the bars.

As soon as he was free he stepped out and stretched before leaning wearily on the side of the cage just as Otto came around to see who was inside. The two stared at each other for a moment, one could cut the tension with a pair of scissors.

Then Otto smiled "Hey, you look just like Mandarin did before he went bad,"

Mandarin smiled back adjusted his position so he could face his youngest brother "It's good to see you again, Otto,"

"Hey, you even sound like him too"

Gibson came in wondering where the two had gone. "Otto, you can't keep wandering off like this, who knows what could be lurking…" the blue scientist saw Mandarin he stopped dead and his jaw dropped, the look on his face was priceless!

Mandarin cleared his throat "Uh, Gibson… you alright?"

Gibson snapped out of it and started stuttering questions "H-How did you… But I just saw…"

Mandarin rubbed his forehead "As I told Antauri before, That first time Skeleton king captured me he made a clone of me and let you guys 'rescue' that instead. That is what you guys have been fighting, I have been in and out of cages ever since,"

Gibson thought of the possibilities of this being true "While that is a possibility we are going to have to check your circuitry when we get back for hacks, I'm going to have to do that anyway, in the meantime I'm afraid you will have to be placed under supervision while we take care of Antauri,"

"Antauri! Is he alright?"

"We are not sure, he still hasn't woken yet and we have no way of knowing what really happened unless he or… your clone… tells us,"

Mandarin frowned, he could tell Gibson didn't quite believe him and… "Is that monster still in there with him?"

"Yes, but…"

An orange blur blew past Gibson and into the next room where Nova and the boys were beating on the clone. But the more they beat him to a pulp, every time they pulled away his face and body seemed to melt and reshape itself to where it was. They looked down at him with horror and rage before pounding their fists again until something orange came up and knocked the evil monkey away from them and into the wall.

Formless Mandarin looked up to see who would _dare_ do that to him only to see a glowing blue energy sword pressed to his throat. The orange robot monkey holding the sword growled at him "You so much as sneeze I will cut your head off!"

The others looked as if they'd seen a ghost, Otto came bouncing in "Hey guys, look who we found…"

Sprx snapped out of it "It's Mandarin, GET'IM!" he and Nova lunged forward and tackled the real Mandarin while the clone got up and ran out of the room, temporarily trading his "Prize" for a head start to freedom.

Mandarin struggled against the pilot and female warrior. "S-P-R-X-7-7! Nova! Get off, you let him get away!"

Nova got a better look at him "How come you look just like you did before you were evil?"

Mandarin groaned "Ugh, for the fifth time, I DID NOT TURN EVIL! Skeleton king made a clone of me, just like the one you just let escape. Now can we please act like civilized monkeys and focus on what's actually important right now?"

Chiro got up and looked the orange monkey in the eyes, he was just like the Mandarin in the memories Antauri showed him only his eyes didn't hold the power mad battle-lust he originally thought they would, they held compassion, determination. When he looked into those eyes he saw… himself.

"Alright team, The Formless could get here any minute, we have to get out before they trap us down here. Gibson, is Antauri safe to be moved,"

"Of course, though I advise that we be careful with him until we know what the damage is to a greater extent. What about _him?_" Gibson didn't need to point for everyone to know whom he was asking about. "We're taking him with us."

Sprx was cynical "How do we know he's not going to take back command and lure us into a trap?"

Mandarin put away his sword and slowly got up. "Because I'm not taking command," he looked up at Chiro and bowed "It is an honor and a privilege to finally meet you, Chosen One. What are your orders?"

Chiro got all bashful "Uh, thanks, same here," then he got serious "Right then, Gibson and Jinmay, you guys bring Antauri the rest of us will cover you in case we run into trouble until we get back to the Robot. Monkeys Mobilize!"

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They made it out of the labs without too much incidence, except for a few Jungle Guardian Formless that had been left behind, but it didn't take long to deal with them.

Nova and Sprx were in front with Mandarin—Sprx insisted he be up front where they could all see him—followed by Jinmay and Gibson carrying Antauri and Otto and Chiro brought up the rear. By the time they got to the stairs they had to leave the stretcher behind because it couldn't take the sharp corners and there was nothing keeping the unconscious monkey from sliding off the stretcher when it was tilted to get up the stairs. Which meant Jinmay was carrying the silver monkey like a toddler while Gibson used his little handheld scanning devise to monitor his vital stats as they walked.

After walking through the jungle for a few minutes, Antauri started to stir. Gibson's handheld started beeping louder and more rapidly as his brother's vitals picked up. "Hold on, I'm picking up an increase in Antauri's vitals, I think he's waking up,"

Jinmay gently laid him on the ground so she wouldn't have to worry about accidentally dropping him if he started to squirm. He didn't.

Antauri's eyes snapped open, only instead of two white pupils like he normally had he had a single green one like when he was first revived. Not realizing where he was or what was going on he thought he was back… _there_ and started slashing around wildly with his ghost claws like a wild animal.

The others dodged him and tried to calm him down.

"Whoa, Watch it!"

"Antauri!"

"Antauri, please calm down, It's just us!"

"_**ANTAURI!"**_ Chiro's voice was made deeper by using the Power Primate to calm the berserker. Antauri froze just short of slashing Sprx's legs clean off—that was about all he could reach since he couldn't stand up due to his… injuries.

Antauri looked around at the others as he blinked his eyes clear, finally able to see he was back with his family, but his relief was short-lived when he looked down at his claws like he never saw them before and with pure terror as he realized what he had almost done.

"Oh My Gosh…" he changed his hands back to normal and curled up on his side.

Cautiously, Chiro and Nova came up and placed a comforting hand on his trembling shoulders. The silver monkey tensed, they all froze in case he started acting crazy again, but he reached up and threw his arms around Chiro's waist, instinctively seeking comfort, trembling and whimpering softly.

Remembering all the times Antauri helped him when he had nightmares, Chiro ran a hand up and down his back and shushed him gently when he started mumbling frantically.

"I'm so sorry…" _Shh._

"I couldn't stop…" _Shh._

"He tried to…" _Shh._

"What if…" _Shh._

This just blew the other monkeys' minds; they had known each other their entire lives and Antauri was always the calm, strong one that held them together, that much was most evident when he died. But to see him so… defeated, hurt, it was all just too much.

Gibson walked up and knelt beside them. "We had better get him to the robot,"

Chiro nodded and rubbed Antauri's head "Come on, let's get you home," he stood up but Antauri clung tighter so he wouldn't fall.

Gibson noticed this "Antauri, can you walk?"

"I don't know… but I can try," he gingerly got his legs under him and pulled away from Chiro but after a couple painful shaky steps he stumbled.

Chiro reached out and caught him. "Here, let me carry you the rest of the way,"

Some small part of Antauri that went by the name of "Pride" told him he didn't need to be babied, but the rest of him was simply too physically and emotionally tired to care, and another small part of him needed reassurance that this wasn't some dream that he'd wake up from to be tortured again.

Chiro picked him up and held him like Jinmay had been and did a quick head count. Feeling like something was missing he looked around and saw Mandarin leaning against a tree, the orange monkey looked dead exhausted but was still alert and looking around for possible danger.

"You coming or are you just going to stand around here all day?" the question came from hanging out with Nova too much.

Mandarin looked over at him with an "Oh, you're still here?" look on his face. "I didn't think you would want me to,"

"Hey, if what you say is true there's no reason why we wouldn't want you, and we know Skeleton King is good with clones,"

Mandarin smiled but his mouth twitched and his eyes flickered, he scrubbed his face with his hand as he slid down the tree and dug his fingers into the bark to keep from falling.

Nova became concerned for her older brother, now that she knew _this _was her brother and not the thing that tried to kill them all "Hey, you okay? You don't look so good,"

Mandarin looked over at her blurry eyes and forced a smile "I'm fine, my energy is just low,"

Gibson came over and examined Mandarin and and ran a few scans on his systems "Hmm, erratic pulse, shallow breathing, Energy levels… Good Gracious! 'Low' nothing, according to my diagnostics he is barely alive!"

They all stared at him with one question on their minds "What happened to you?"

He started to speak but all he could do was stare off into space.

Jinmay came over and picked him up "Here, let me carry you. That way you can rest a while until we get back,"

Too far gone to protest, Mandarin held on to her shoulders and let his head rest on the pink heart over her chest as they started off.

They walked the whole way to the entrance of the Savage Lands, Chiro carrying Antauri and Jinmay carried Mandarin while the others formed a circle around them ready to fight any monsters that came along.

Luckily there weren't that many and they made it to the fallen tree that formed a ramp up to the hole that would take them back to the surface and the safety of the Super Robot.

But little did they know they were being watched…

* * *

_**AN: Chapter 2 of Monkey Doodle is here. Thank you to everyone that read this so far and thank you to everyone the added this to your alert and favorites lists, like AntauriSigma, Dragonblaze66 , Night of StarClan and sunstar989.**_

_**Comments, questions and suggestions are welcome. Any flames will be used to light fire crackers to be tossed into the team's bed rooms when they are trying to sleep and Gibson's lab when he is in there doing experiments.**_

_**Hugs and Mugs,**_

_**Lady Quickshift**_


	3. Chapter 3

Monkey Doodle

Chapter 3

Rated T for swearing and dark themes, this is where we delve further in how the mpreg I mentioned earlier can in fact be possible—but will it actually happen now or will we have to wait? If you don't like it stop reading now.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my OC's

Language fonts (In case I hadn't explained these prior to this):

"regular talking"

:Comm. links:

"_**Speaking with the Power Primate"**_

'_thoughts'_

"_Sign language/hand signals"_

* * *

Mandarin didn't know how long he slept but he rolled over on his side, not opening his eyes, and slowly reached an arm out, wanting to feel the warmth and the smooth curves of his mate's body for a blissful moment before getting up like he did every morning. He felt mildly disappointed when his hand found the edge of a bed and open air.

'_Hmm, maybe she's on the other side,'_ he turned over to the other side to reach out but not only was he met with the same result he heard something off to his side; beeping monitors and the sound of someone scuttling around gathering objects from around the room.

Mandarin froze when he heard a door _whoosh _open and closed to let someone in. Whoever just came in started talking in hushed tones with whoever was in the… lab? Yes, Mandarin was certain he was in a lab, and he had to get out. NOW!

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Gibson went about his lab gathering any tools and equipment he needed to examine his two patients. Since he was the team's scientist and the one with the most medical knowledge it was up to him to get Mandarin and Antauri up and running again.

Just as he finished cleaning the grime off Antauri with a cleansing wipe and hooking him up to a monitor, Chiro and Nova came in with worried looks on their faces.

"How are they Gibson?"

Gibson checked to make sure Antauri's monitors were working before getting another wipe to clean Mandarin off so any dirt particles on him wouldn't interfere with the medical scans or contaminate any samples he took for examination. "They both appear stable, Otto and I repaired the damage to Antauri's armor but since he's not in any immediate danger from what I can tell I'm going to wait until he is ready to tell us what happened before I do anything about it. In the meantime all we can do is be here for him and help him heal. Mandarin on the other hand…"

Suddenly Mandarin sat up screaming "JAILBREAK! JAILBREAK!" and tried to get up to make a break for it but got tangled in the medical blanket he was covered in and fell over the side of the bed and landed on the cold and unforgiving metal floor.

"Ouch," he slowly sat up, holding his head and actually looked around for the first time. He saw the boy with Nova and Gibson, the three were staring at him like he lost his mind while everything from the past few hours came flooding back to him.

Mandarin gave them an apologetic smile and tried to climb back up again. "Sorry, forgot where I was for a moment there," the room started spinning so he leaned against the medical cot he had been on.

Gibson rushed over and helped him get situated. "Easy, Mandarin, I replaced your old energy cell and there is no sufficient damage to your systems but your body is still incredibly weak right now. In addition to malnutrition and over exhaustion you are extremely dehydrated. You really should rest for now. I know you won't like it but I will be putting you inside the repair tank to assist your recovery,"

Mandarin slumped in defeat with a huff. "Fine," he started to stand up again when strong human arms scooped him up and carried him over to the tube shaped tank. He looked up and saw the ocean eyes of Chiro, the Chosen One.

Some small part of Chiro didn't know why he was helping Mandarin, after all the times he promised him all sorts of suffering for his crimes, but he knew that the orange monkey he was helping, practically welcoming back on the team after he was kicked out long before the boy was even born, was not the monkey that committed those crimes.

"Chiro, right?"

Chiro looked down at him and raised an eyebrow "Yeah?"

Mandarin reached up to grasp his shoulder with a soft smile. "Thank you for taking care of them when I couldn't,"

Chiro frowned "Does this mean you're taking back leadership?" in his mind he was screaming '_Please say no! Please say no!'_ his worst fear was losing everything—his powers and his monkey family—and having to go back to being a regular human boy.

Mandarin shook his head "No, from what I hear you're doing fine, but if you have any questions or need any help just ask," he leaned closer to whisper "Besides, Sprx would probably hang me off of Fist Rocket three and swing me around like a yoyo if I did," he winked at the boy before he was placed inside the tank that was tilted back to make it easier to place him in.

Chiro carefully set him inside so he wasn't just thrown in like firewood into a wood stove and Gibson came over and hooked a few wires to him. "I'm going to have to put you onto stasis while you are in here," Mandarin turned his head to the side so he wouldn't have to see what Gibson was doing to his arm.

"Do you feel any pain, nausea or anything else I should know about?"

"No," Mandarin saw Antauri on a cot nearby, already hooked up to various machines but other than that he appeared to be asleep. "How bad is he?"

Gibson cleaned his arms off with the wipe he had just grabbed before inserting the small tubes and wires in the other monkey's arms. "Stable for now, no lasting exterior damage, but we are going to have to wait until he wakes up before we try to find out more,"

Mandarin watched the silver monkey for a moment then nodded.

Gibson inserted a cable into the port in the back of Mandarin's head and put an air mask over his muzzle then closing the lid and making sure nothing was amiss before pressing the controls to put Mandarin into stasis and fill the container with liquid for the orange monkey to float in while the tank was tipped upright. Then the scientist pulled Chiro and Nova outside the in order to talk to the first and third in command without disturbing the two monkeys resting inside.

What no one realized was that, due to the circumstances and conditions he was in while imprisoned by the Skeleton King, Mandarin had over time built up an immunity to most drugs and tranquilizers; the stasis-inducing coding and chemicals only numbed him and made him drowsy but didn't knock him out.

He looked over at his brother on the parallel cot and spoke to him through the Power Primate. "_**I know you're awake, brother, and the others are outside. You can stop pretending now,**_"

Antauri slowly opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling. "_**I know, I was hoping to talk to Gibson about something, but not in front of…**_" Antauri looked away, ashamed.

Mandarin nodded "_**I understand. Would you like him to come back in here?**_"

"_**No, I can wait until he is done talking to Chiro and Nova, they will follow him and there is something I wish to speak with him about in private,**_"

Both monkeys were silent for a moment, staring straight in front of them in mediation. "_**I could distract them while you talk to him, even if they don't want to talk to me I could always fake a nose bleed like I did in Master Zan's lessons,"**_

"_**When you were trying to get out of class so you got to go to the CometFire **__**festival a few hours earlier than the rest of us when it came to Coralla Dahl? I still don't know how you managed that but he saw right through that act and so will they, Chiro tried it as well when he was trying to get out of one of his lessons so he could watch "Sun Riders","**_

Mandarin smirked behind his air mask "_**Okay, maybe that won't work so well, but he was actually waiting for you to wake up so if you really need to talk to him he's right outside,**_"

Antauri hesitated then opened a small receiver on the end of his audio receptors so he could listen to what was going on outside the closed door and heard Gibson telling Chiro and Nova all he knew which was the same thing he told Mandarin, he also heard the other two's worry and asking if they could stay with him.

Deciding to make his consciousness known, Antauri activated his ghost claws to open the door telekinetically, causing Chiro to fall into the room as he had been leaning against it. "Oh, I'm sorry, Chiro,"

Chiro tilted his head back to see Antauri looking at him and rolled over. "Antauri? Hey, Gibson, Antauri's awake!" he scrambled into the room with the two monkeys following close behind him to the silver monkey's bedside.

"How are you feeling Antauri?"

"I'll live, but there was actually something I wanted to ask Gibson about… privately,"

This worried Chiro and increased his ever present curiosity. "Antauri, what's wrong?"

Antauri reached out and gave his boy's hand a reassuring squeeze. _His _boy? Well, Chiro had become like a son to him, but he wasn't sure the human boy thought of him as anything more than a teacher. "I'll be fine, Chiro, I just want to see if Gibson can check something, just to be safe. Why don't you and Nova go keep Mandarin company for a while?"

Gibson got all flustered "Mandarin? But he's supposed to be in stasis! Why would they need to…?"

He turned to see the orange monkey in the tank was wide awake and glaring at him. The blue monkey screeched and asked "How is he still awake?"

"Due to the fact Skeleton King has had to put him into stasis many times over the past few years and any food he was given was drugged, Mandarin was able to build up an immunity to most tranquilizers and sedatives that are commonly used, the only thing we use that would affect him would be the electromagnetic null pulsars which only affect the cybernetic systems. You made him unable to feel pain and his movements sluggish but you did not put him into complete stasis,"

"So… he can hear us?" Chiro was intrigued by actually talking to the orange monkey but wasn't sure if it were possible with the latter in the plex tube.

"Yes, Chiro, he can hear you, and if you remember that sign language we taught you, you will be able to understand him as well," Antauri let go of Chiro's hand to send Mandarin a few hand signals.

"_You remember how to Sign?"_

Mandarin rolled his eyes and signed back, careful of the wires on his arms. _"Of course I do,"_

"_Good, they want to talk to you while I talk to Gibson. Is that alright with you?"_

Mandarin looked over at Chiro meaningfully _"Does the boy know Sign?"_

Chiro caught this and signed "_Yes, I do,"_

Mandarin smiled behind the air mask and gestured for them to come closer, which they did; albeit hesitantly.

For added privacy, Gibson set up a curtain and drew it around them. "Now then, what was it you wished to talk about Antauri?"

Antari hesitated "How much do you know about the Silver Monkey?"

Gibson reached up to touch his chin in thought. "All I know is that the Alchemist tried to build it before he created us and it failed until Chiro used it to bring you back. Why do you ask?"

"While I was… captured… by Mandarin's clone, I found something out,"

When he stopped talking Gibson tried to prod further without actually prying. "Might I ask what?"

Antauri took a deep breath and told Gibson what the clone told him about the Silver monkey. Needless to say, Gibson was flabbergasted. "I must say, Antauri this sort of information is mindboggling to say the least, are you certain it is not another one of his mind games?"

"I'm positive, he…" he couldn't bring himself to say the actual word for it out loud so he asked about what was troubling him the most. "He tried to impregnate me. He was originally going to target Nova but I got in his way,"

Gibson went pale when he asked "Are you…?"

"I don't know. I was hoping if there was some way for you to find out if… if he succeeded,"

Gibson forced his usual composure back into place so he could focus on the task on hand. "Right, then, First thing we got to do is check your… erm… if what the clone said about your new anatomy is true and not some elaborate brain washing tactic. If it is I will just have to run some of the same tests I use on Nova in addition to the ones I use on the rest of to find out if you are…"

Antauri gently cut him off. "Gibson, I'm sorry but you are babbling, my friend,"

Gibson shook his head to clear his thoughts. "Right, sorry."

After taking some in depth scans and finding an oval shaped chamber-like organ, which appeared to be able to expand if the billowed folds that criss-crossed across its surface were anything to go by, nestled between the silver monkey's hip structure and on top of a conical tube. He had seen that before in the first check-up he gave Antauri after he was restored in the silver monkey's body and thought nothing of it but now that he thought of it, it did look sort of like a… '_But that's impossible, unless…'_

"Antauri, I am afraid I am going to have to do a manual examination," Gibson put on some gloves he used for hands-on examinations, just in case, and came around to where Antauri's legs were slightly parted underneath the blanket. "If you could just…" Antauri pulled the part of the blanket covering his legs up over his waist. "That's right. Now let's have a look-see, shall we?" he carefully parted his patient's legs a bit further, causing the silver monkey to flinch.

"Don't worry, this won't hurt a bit," Gibson noticed Antauri's face appeared as calm as always but he was gripping the blanket like he wanted to throw it back over himself and hide underneath it. "Antauri, look at me," Antauri did. "I promise I'm just going to look. I'm not going to hurt you, alright?"

Antauri nodded, he trusted Gibson but he wasn't sure he could trust himself while someone was touching him like that, especially after what happened in the Savage Lands.

Gibson gently removed Antauri's lower armor and carefully set it aside within easy reach where Antauri could see it—unlike the clone had—but beneath the armor, where what he was looking for _should _have been, was a smooth metal plate. "Antauri, I don't see…"

Antauri sent an internal override command to retract the plate.

"Ah, that works. Now let's see what we have…here?" Gibson blinked a few times, unsure he was actually seeing what he was seeing.

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_With Chiro, Nova and Mandarin_

The three of them were actually having a good time getting to know each other all over again, Nova and Chiro telling Mandarin about all their personal endeavors and all the team's missions from their point of view while Mandarin signed about how his life had been since he first went missing. Nova translated any signals Chiro might have missed but all in all they were getting along.

A minutes after the curtain was pulled around the silver and blue monkeys they heard Gibson shout "GREAT CAESAR'S GHOST IN BLOODY HELL! WHEN DID THAT GET THERE?"

They all jumped at the volume and the fact that Gibson didn't usually curse. "That didn't sound good,"

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Antauri waited patiently for Gibson to calm down, which was thankfully before he started to panic himself. Gibson slowly leaned in and began the examination.

"Well, it would seem the clone was right about the dual-sex anatomy. In addition to the usual male genitals you appear to have a vaginal opening hidden underneath and a uterine chamber, which appears to have been penetrated," Gibson shone a light on the opening to check for tears and other damage. "Aside from the obvious anomaly, Everything seems to be in good physical condition, despite certain previous considerations."

He put the light away and gestured for Antauri to close up again, which the silver monkey did hastily and covered himself back up with the blanket to ward off the chill of the that now seemed even colder than usual.

"However, I am afraid it is still too soon to tell if you are now gravid or not,"

Antauri was starting to worry. "But there is a way, isn't there?"

Gibson nodded. " I have a test you can take in due time, I was going to wait until you have recovered more so either way we are just going to have to wait,"

Antauri nodded. "In the meantime, could you please not tell the others about this just yet? If they see it as a good thing I don't want to get their hopes up if the test comes back negative, If they do not see it that way and I am…" the last thing he wanted was for his team, his family, to hate him for something like this.

"But if the test comes back positive and they are happy for this for this sort of news this would give them something to look forward to. If they only see any results that could come from what has happened as a spawn of a foe forced upon you and the test comes back negative they will be relieved, so there is actually a fifty percent chance that having them know ahead of time could end badly. But I understand your want for secrecy so I will tell no one,"

Gibson took off his gloves and placed them in the sterilizer for later use and pushed the scanner he used back to where it was by the monitor, which was also blocked by the curtain so no one else could see what was on it. "Now all that's left to do is wait. I will leave you to your rest for now, just use your communicator to contact me if you need anything. Would you like to see Chiro or Nova before I shoo them out?"

"Yes, please and… Thank you, Gibson,"

Gibson smiled "My pleasure," he went over to grab the edge of the curtain and slide it open.

Chiro and Nova jumped when they heard the curtains rings scraping across the metal rod they were hung on to reveal Gibson looking at them with his "poker face" on while Antauri stared off to the side, lost in thought .

Gibson waved them over "You can see him now, but if he starts to appear tired we should let him rest, same goes for Mandarin,"

They went to stand next to Antauri . "Hey Antauri, how are you feeling?"

Antauri looked up at them "I'll be fine. How are you?"

Chiro smiled "We're okay, we're just glad to have you back,"

Nova carefully threw her arms around Antauri and hugged him "Yeah, if Chiro hadn't been able to track you with the Power Primate I don't know what we would've done,"

Antauri looked over at the boy "You did?" Chiro nodded and Antauri pulled him over to join the hug, he was so proud of Chiro and all the progress he had made since they first took him in.

"Having a party without us?" Everyone looked to see Sprx and Otto in the door way with Jinmay peering around the corner of the door.

Chiro looked concerned all of the sudden "Uh, Sprx, Aren't you supposed to be driving the Super Robot?"

Sprx waved him off with a "pshht" sound "Don't worry kid, we're parked safe and sound in the Robot's usual spot, thought we'd come down here and see what's going on,"

Otto bounced in "So what did we miss?"

Chiro counted on his fingers "Well, first Mandarin woke up, he didn't know where he was so he panicked and fell on the floor…"

Sprx snickered "Ha ha, nice,"

"…Then we put him in the tank so he can recover better. After that Gibson wanted to talk to us out in the hall about something. While we were out there Antauri woke up and asked if Gibson could check something while we got caught up with Mandarin—he's actually not that bad once you actually get to know him enough to stop picturing his clone every time you hear his name,"

Nova piped up, "Then Gibson finished and we both came over and hugged Antauri and that's when you came in,"

Jinmay came in the rest of the way. "How are you feeling Antauri?"

"I'm fine Jinmay, thank you for asking?" Antauri tried to fight back a yawn but they all saw him rub his eyes.

Chiro looked at Jinmay and the other monkeys. "It's getting late, I think we all better turn in for the night,"

Antauri had no way of knowing if it was actually late or if they were just saying that so he wouldn't feel bad about almost going to sleep on them. "How late is it, really?"

"Almost three in the morning," Gibson stood in front of them with his arms crossed "Now unless anyone here is required to stay here overnight I suggest we all go to our rooms,"

No one argued, they all said goodnight, everyone but Sprx stopped to say goodnight to Mandarin who signed it back.

Gibson was the last one out so he could make sure neither of them needed anything before setting his alarms to alert him if anything changed during the night and turning out the lights when he closed the door behind him.

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Over the next few days, the team fell back into their usual routine and managed to include Mandarin in it after he was let out of his overnight stay in the tank, but he was still not back up to a hundred percent yet and since Chiro had taken on his old role there wasn't much he could do except help with basic chores around the Robot, patrol through the city with Jinmay on his rocket pack or accompanying Chiro or Jinmay when one or both of them went to the store with either just them or the other monkeys as well.

Since Chiro had been moved into what used to be Mandarin's room Antauri offered to share his room so they set up a cot in there until they could get something set up for him, since they were already doing the same for Jinmay so she could become a more official part of the team with the robot girl in Nova's room while the two new rooms were being set up.

Things were pretty good for the most part, but a couple of weeks after they returned from the Savage Lands, Antauri had begun to tire more easily than usual and at one point fell ill. Literally fell, he was levitating during mediation like he usually did when he collapsed onto the floor.

When he came to Mandarin was standing over him, having been in the room doing his own meditation when the silver monkey fell. "Are you alright?"

Antauri pinched the bridge of his nose and rubbed the corners of his eyes with his fingers. "I'm fine, just… tired…" then a wave of nausea came over him causing him to roll over on his side with a pained grunt.

Mandarin noticed the slight shade of green the silver monkey was turning. "Want me to go get Gibson?"

Antauri shook his head and, not trusting himself to be able to open his mouth right then, spoke through the Power Primate "_**No, I think I just need to lie down for a while,"**_ he crawled over to his bed and dragged himself into it and tried to force himself to sleep.

Later that night, the door to the two brothers' shared room opened and a silver figure slipped out and sped down the hall to the bathroom and shut the door behind them.

Mandarin woke up in the middle of the night to find himself alone in the room. '_Where did Antauri go?' _ then he realized the reason he woke up. With a yawn he got up and silently walked down the hall to the only bathroom on the Robot. '_Honestly I don't know why he has all those little rivers in his little zen garden, all they do is make one need to go to the bathroom more often,'_ While trying not to wonder how said rivers didn't spill when the Robot fought, flew or moved—because that wouldn't have helped his problem any—he came to the bathroom door but he didn't go in, he heard noises inside.

Pressing his audio receiver against the door he heard the unmistakable sounds of someone vomiting.

When the sickening sounds were ended by the sound of a toilet flushing and someone running water Mandarin located a nearby storage closet and retrieved a bucket from it and waited outside the bathroom. He couldn't help but be half-surprised when Antauri came stumbling out holding his head in one hand and gripping the doorframe with the other.

Antauri was about to head back to his room when someone placed a bucket in his hands "Mandarin? What are you doing up so late?"

"Got up to use the bathroom and I heard you heaving in there. Are you _sure _you're okay?"

Antauri nodded and tried to make it convincing "I believe so, but I think I might be… getting the flu," he added on after a slight pause, luckily his older brother thought he just needed to go back to bed and didn't press any further.

Mandarin lead him back to the room and opened the door for him "Try to go back to sleep, you can ask Gibson to check in the morning," Antauri went inside clutching his bucket to his chest while Mandarin rushed back to the bathroom to do his business before going back to bed himself.

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The next morning, everyone gathered in the little dining area in the Super Robot's kitchen for breakfast. Well, not _everyone._

"Has anyone seen Antauri yet?" Chiro looked around for the silver monkey who was normally the first one up.

Sprx wiped off bits of food that were splattered on him by Otto digging into his bowl of oatmeal face first so he could get done and start on a new project sooner. "Haven't seen him, normally he's already here making his nasty veggie shakes by the time we even get up,"

Turns out when the Mandarin clone said he put biological material in Antauri's frame he actually implanted him with a live digestive system so he could actually eat and drink now rather than rely completely on energy cells like he did when he was first getting used to his new body. None of them thought they'd ever seen anyone so happy to eat vegetables before, or that Antauri could get that excitable about _anything._ "Mandarin's gone too,"

Nova looked up from her own breakfast. "I just saw Mandarin come out of the training room, he said he would be down in a few minutes, but I'm worried about Antauri, he doesn't usually sleep so late. I'm going to go check on him,"

"Leave him be," Mandarin came in and poured himself some juice. "He's been sick all night and just now fell asleep, I just checked on him myself,"

Chiro was about to run to the room and check on him anyway. "Is he okay?"

Mandarin nodded and swallowed the mouthful of juice he just drank. "Yeah, He says he thinks it's the flu,"

Otto set his bowl down when he heard this, and to come up for air, "I didn't know Antauri could get sick,"

Nova handed the now sticky green monkey a napkin "Come to think of it, I don't think I remember him ever being sick before, and we've all been together, ya know, forever,"

Gibson looked around the thick book he was reading while he ate. "He has been sick before, actually, he just hid it really well from the rest of you,"

After they all finished eating they all went about their usual business; Otto bounded in the direction of his workshop to start his project, Gibson went straight to the lab, Sprx was stuck on monitor duty and was watching for any signs of trouble outside the city (which in his mind was the most boring job ever), Chiro and Nova were _supposed _to be training but each snuck off in opposite directions only to meet up again by everyone's rooms.

When they realized they were going the same way Chiro looked down at the golden monkey "Going to check on Antauri?"

"You know it!"

They stood in front of the door to the silver monkey's room, about to knock, only to have Mandarin appear in front of them in a flash of dark green light and a _vop_ sound. "Really, you two, you couldn't give him another fifteen minutes or so?"

They jumped back, Nova pretending to be going to her room to get something while Chiro was trying to figure out what just happened. "H-how did you do that?"

Mandarin crossed his arms "Teleportation, It's a more advanced Power Primate trick, one you will take years to learn if you keep trying to skip lessons,"

Chiro rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly "You, uh, think you could teach me that?"

Mandarin thought about it and gestured for the boy to follow him and the two headed for the training room. "Eventually, I probably could. But first there is a lot more you must learn before we can get to that, like I said, _advanced _skill set_,_"

Chiro groaned "Can't we just skip some of that?"

Mandarin chuckled dryly "That's like someone asking if they can ride a bike without training wheels as soon as they've learned to walk," Seeing the boy's face and shoulders fall, he floated just high enough so he could grasp Chiro's shoulder "Don't worry, you'll get there, you're just not ready for the tougher stuff yet, kiddo,"

The two went to the training room, Antauri had given Mandarin a lesson plan of what he was going to go over with Chiro that day in training and asked him to stand in for him that day, in hopes he would actually stick to the lesson plan, or at least not start on anything Chiro wasn't ready for yet.

Does it sound like they will? Yeah, didn't think so.

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_Half an hour later_

Antauri snuck down to the kitchen to grab something to eat that would be least likely to come back up again. While he was looking through a cupboard where he knew they usually kept the crackers, Jinmay came in. "Oh, morning Antauri,"

Not looking up from his search—because he knew who it was without looking—until he found what he was looking for, Antauri answered back "Good morning, Jinmay, did you sleep well last night?"

Jinmay poured some cereal into a bowl and set it on the table before getting the milk out. Antauri found the crackers and sat across from where she planned on sitting with them and a glass of water. When Jinmay poured the milk over her cereal the smell of it reached Antauri's nose and he almost lost it right there. He knew the milk wasn't bad but he just couldn't…

Jinmay noticed the silver monkey's sickly pallor behind the hand he had clamped over his muzzle and figured the problem. "Oh, sorry Antauri," she sniffed the carton herself but Antauri waved his free hand.

"It's fine, the milk isn't bad if that's what you're wondering, I just…"

"Still don't feel good?" Antauri nodded, breathing through his mouth to try to fight the nausea until it subsided, for now.

The two ate their breakfast in relative silence, when they finished Jinmay spoke up. "I was thinking of going to town later, do you need anything?"

Antauri got an idea "Actually… there was something I've been meaning to get, but is it alright if I come with you to get it?"

Jinmay thought about it "Well, if you're sure you're up for it, ok. May I ask what it is?"

"It's… somewhat awkward to talk about," he rubbed his arm, looking away in embarrassment. "I'd rather the others didn't know about it yet but if you'll allow me to accompany you I will tell you on the way,"

"Alright, meet me at the door in the Robot's foot, I'll go ask the other's if they needed anything,"

Jinmay went to find everyone while Antauri rode his purple tube to the Robot's foot, but not before stopping by his room to get something.

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By late morning, Shuggazoom city was starting to quiet down from the lack of morning commuters to give the streets a brief reprieve before the noon rush. Among the few people actually out and about down town was a pink haired girl in a green dress walking beside what appeared to be a kid in grey sweats wearing a face mask over his nose and mouth, black sneakers and gloves.

If anyone got a good look at his eyes they would see he was not in fact a human boy but a robot monkey with his tail tucked in the back of his shirt. That is why Antauri kept his hood up and his head down.

"I still don't know why you're wearing that, or where you got it in the first place," Jinmay had asked about his disguise, but he said nothing until now.

Antauri kept his voice low so no one could hear him speaking monkey. "I know of a shop in this part of town that we used to frequent because the owners know sign language so if we needed to ask for something or just wanted to have a friendly conversation we don't have to worry about a language barrier,"

"Oh, that's nice,"

"Yes, but we haven't gone there in a while because Chiro always translated for us so none of the others saw much reason to go there. As for your question about what I am wearing we all have similar disguises because sometimes we want to walk among the people of Shuggazoom unnoticed so we all have something to disguise ourselves as very young humans and no one has ever been the wiser. I am wearing mine right now because in the event someone sees us I don't want anyone to know what I'm getting in own today,"

Jinmay understood why they would want to walk through the city without someone recognizing them, there were some places that wouldn't let them in because they were monkeys, despite everything they've done for the city. "But why didn't you want the others to know what you're getting?"

Antauri looked around to make sure no one saw and pulled her into an alley behind some trash cans and started to pull off his gloves. "Perhaps it would be easier if I just showed you," he activated his ghost claws and slowly reached for her forhead. At first Jinmay was a little afraid but Antauri reassured her "Don't worry, this won't hurt a bit, I have done this for Chiro many times,"

Trusting him, like she always had, she held still and let him phase the tips of his claws into her head and reach into her mind with pulsating tendrils that were both hot and cold.

Instead of actually showing her the event—he didn't want to scare her—Antauri replayed the conversation he had with Gibson when he first woke up in the med. Bay.

When he pulled away, Jinmay was dazed from having another consciousness in direct contact with her own and trying to comprehend what she just saw. "Antauri… are you…?"

Antauri changed his hands back so he could put his gloves back on. "I'm not certain just yet, as I still need to have a test done, but there is a good chance I might be," he was careful not to actually say the word so he wouldn't "jinx" it, but Jinmay got the idea.

"Come on, the sooner we get our stuff the sooner we can get back home to the Robot."

After Jinmay had bought everything else on her list and put it in the little basket she carried with her they came to the shop that was slightly off the beaten path that had an old fashioned wooden sign that said "Hearth to Heart Trading Post" hanging over a heavy looking wooden door that had a plated glass window on it with a metal grate over it that was made to look like vines climbing up the door. The store itself had a more rustic feel to it being built of unpainted wood in a simple design.

A little bell rang when Antauri opened the door and held it for Jinmay to walk in first. She slowly walked in, she had never been there before and was curious as to why no one told her about this place before.

The interior of the store had rows of wooden shelves evenly spaced out on one side to hold groceries, tools, pretty much anything you would find in a store. The wall on the left side was lined with bookshelves and a magazine rack while the right side had wooden barrels full of different kinds of candy propped up on their sides and held in place by a wooden frame.

There was music playing from little speakers overhead, a soft haunting tune that consisted of drums, flutes, violins, guitar and other various instruments Jinmay didn't recognize.

A young woman with short black hair wearing a blue long sleeve shirt that laced up at the chest and blue jeans came out from behind a curtain that was hung behind the front desk to see who had come in. She smiled warmly when she saw them "Hello, how may I help you?"

Antauri whispered to Jinmay "That's Raven, she and her sisters own and run the shop," he pulled his mask off and put it in his pocket. When Raven saw his face her smile brightened "Well, Hello there, are you new?"

Antauri shook his head and signed "_No, it's me, Antauri," _

Raven's eyes widened "Antauri? Sorry, I didn't recognize you, you look so different. Who's this?" she looked over at Jinmay. Jinmay smiled "I'm Jinmay, I actually am kind of new here,"

The two young ladies smiled and shook hands "Nice to meet you, Jinmay, I'm Raven. Let me know if you need help finding anything," the two nodded their thanks and split up, Antauri going straight for one specific section and then another to get what he needed while Jinmay browsed around to see what was on the shelves.

It was a pretty well-stocked store had the basic necessities like toiletries and deodorant and also groceries—Jinmay found a couple coolers in the back, one for drinks one for produce and one held frozen foods like ice cream and TV dinners—as well as tools and fixtures for do-it-yourself household projects.

Jinmay stopped at a shelf that held what appeared to be a few homemade stuffed animals and wooden toys and picked up a little stuffed bear made that was made with soft brown fabric that had little buttons for eyes and nose and smelled like lavender, it was also wearing a little superhero costume. "Ah, so cute,"

Antauri came around the corner with a little basket he had grabbed to carry his items in "Ready?"

Jinmay nodded and set the bear down, Antauri noticed this "If you really want that bear I'm sure they are asking a reasonable price for it,"

Jinmay looked at the bear again and shook her head "I'll get it some other time, we've already got enough stuff as it is," the two went to the counter and Antauri set his basket on top of it.

Raven took each item out and rang it up, placing them in a white paper bag that had a picture of a heart with flames inside on it. When she realized what the narrow pink boxes were she looked at them both with a skeptical look "Are you two…?"

Antauri held up his hands and shook his head "_no, we're not together. These aren't for her, they're for me,"_

Raven was confused "How…?"

"_It's a long story," _Antauri started to feel sick again_ "Do you recommend anything for nausea?"_

Raven saw he was trying to keep his breakfast down and finished bagging his things. "Here, you should sit down," she came around and handed him waste bin in case he needed it and lead him behind the curtain. "You can come too if you want, we don't bite,"

Jinmay followed them to the back room which was not only where they stored their extra wares but they obviously lived there. There was a kitchen on one side of the room and a seating area on the other, a wooden staircase lead to a loft above them.

After seating Antauri on a chair Raven went over and got him a glass of water from the sink and brought it over to him. She asked if Jinmay wanted anything but she politely declined.

Just as they were all seated around the small table, they heard a dinging sound followed by "Finally, the cookies are done!" coming from upstairs and someone jumping over the railing. Everyone but Antauri jumped when a girl with brown hair in a low ponytail that went down to her waist wearing a red crop top and black leggings under a pleated jean skort landed with a thud and grabbed a pair of oven mitts.

Raven recovered instantly "LILY! WHAT HAVE I SAID ABOUT JUMPING OFF THE RAILING WITHOUT LOOKING FIRST? Someone could get hurt,"

Lily rolled her eyes and pulled the mitts on her hands "Ah, come on, Rave. I knew you were by the sink and the rest of us were upstairs, and it's not like we have…" she turned around and saw Jinmay and Antauri. "…Company? Who are they?"

Raven rolled her wrist and extended a finger to point at Jinmay. "This is Jinmay, she's a friend of the HyperForce monkeys. I'm sure you remember Antauri,"

Lily recognized where she saw that hoodie before and ran up to hug him "Antauri!" she lifted him up and spun around.

Antauri covered his mouth and dry heaved. Raven and Jinmay ran up to pull the two apart and sit him back down. "Careful, he's not feeling well right now,"

"Oh, sorry, I didn't know that," then Lily remembered why she came downstairs "oh no, the cookies!" she turned and went back to the stove and opened it, the smell of fresh baked cookies wafting into the room. She reached in and pulled the first pan out and set it on top of the stove and yelled upstairs "Hey, Minerva, come see who's here!"

A girl with dark brown hair pulled back in a braid wearing a green vest over a brown long sleeve shirt with blue jeans and black fingerless gloves came out and leaned on the railing "Who's here?"

Lily pulled the second pan out of the oven and shut the door with her foot. "I'll give you a hint, Starts with an 'ant' and ends in 'ri',"

Minerva saw Antauri sitting there with his hood up, he turned slightly and waved shyly while he pulled his tail out from under his sweatshirt. "OH MY GOSH, ANTAURI!"

Raven saw her swing back and knew she was going to… "No don't…" Minerva vaulted over the railing like her sister had, her cowboy boots making a louder thud than Lily's sneakers "Oh, I give up!" Raven folded her arms on the table and rested her head on them while Minerva calmly went over and hugged Antauri, who gave her a one-armed hug back.

Antauri's hood fell off when she pulled back, revealing a silver monkey rather than the black one they knew him as. Minerva saw this and whistled "Whoa, you sure that's Antauri?"

Antauri rolled his eyes and signed "_Yes, it's me,"_

The three sisters stared at him silently, Jinmay noticed they all had the same flawless pale complexions and grey eyes.

Raven broke the silence by asking in a soft, emotionless voice. "Antauri, what happened to you?"

Minerva leaned on the back of Raven's chair "Did Gibson try his experiments on you again? Or was it a prank from one of the others,"

Antauri looked down and shook his head, signing "_It's a long story,"_

Lily came over and turned around a chair so she could straddle it "Well, we got some time before the cookies are done cooling and with it being a slow day and all, if you want to tell us we'd love to hear it,"

Antauri took a deep breath, steeling himself, before he told them the story; starting with how he sensed something wrong with the Power Primate and went to Coralla Dahl to find that Master Zan had been siding with Skeleton King and using the Power Primate to give him enough power to release the Dark One Worm, how Antauri sacrificed himself to stop the Worm and was brought back by Chiro in the body of the Silver Monkey.

Lily asked "Is that why you feel sick, because you're not in your actual body anymore?"

Antauri took a drink of his water and signed "_something like that, but there's more to it,"_

Raven sat up again "I think I know, but you never did say how… _that _was possible,"

The other two looked at their sister "Wait, how do you know?"

Raven leaned back and crossed her arms "Oh no, I am _not _telling. He got something from pharmacy and asked if I recommended any remedies for nausea so I'm pleading patient-confidentiality on this one,"

"Ah, c'mon!"

"That's so unfair!" the two sisters stopped ranting when they noticed Antauri was signing again. He was telling them what he recently found out about his new body and what he was trying to find out. They all noticed his hands were shaking and Jinmay hugged him to try to comfort him.

The three sisters were shocked.

"You mean…"

"Do you really think you're…?"

"How is that possible?"

Antauri signed once his hands were steady again "_While it is a possibility, I am uncertain if I am p…"_

He hesitated mid-sign and changed it to "_or what I will do if I am,"_ Antauri let his head fall in his hands.

Minerva knelt next to him and rubbed his back "Hey, it's ok, everything's going to be ok,"

Not knowing what else to do Lily went over to where the cookies were cooling and found one that was at least cooled enough to eat and put it on a napkin and brought it over to him. "Want a cookie? It will help you feel better,"

Not wanting to seem rude, and he _did _remember how good those cookies were, Antauri took it with a thankful smile and took a small bite and hummed with pleasure, it was just as good as he remembered.

"How is it?" Antauri made the sign for "_heavenly"_, Jinmay didn't know what it meant so Antauri finished his bite and translated for her.

Lily face palmed "Oh, where are my manners?" she went and got another cookie for Jinmay. "Sorry I haven't had a chance to ice them yet,"

"That's fine, thank you," Jinmay accepted the cookie and tried a bite, and almost teared up at the taste of it.

"Are you alright, Did you burn yourself?"

Jinmay shook her head "No, these are delicious. What kind of cookies are they?"

The sisters smiled "Thank you" Lily and Raven said at the same time.

Minerva stood up and went over to some covered up mixing bowls and peeked under the dish towels covering them "They are a family recipe, we usually give them out during the holidays or by customer request,"

Raven put her elbow on the table and held her head "Not that we get many customers anymore, so we just bake them for the heck of it,"

"Why haven't you been getting customers?" Jinmay just couldn't see why everyone in town just stopped coming to this shop and no one was telling her anything.

For the first time since she came downstairs, Lily actually looked sad about something. "Well, we lost some of our best costumers when Skeleton king started to causing trouble. First Mandarin, or who we thought was Mandarin, went evil. The other monkeys weren't seen or heard from since until Chiro woke them up. After the monkey team went missing everyone else was too afraid to stray off of main street unless they lived in another part of town,"

Minerva uncovered the bowls and set the towels aside to mix whatever was inside of them to keep it from getting stiff. "You can imagine why no one wanted to come to such an isolated part of town just to get some things they could easily get somewhere else.

"Yeah, and a few months after the monkeys disappeared… our sister Val went missing,"

Jinmay gasped "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry,"

Raven waved her off "Don't be, it wasn't your fault. But for some reason, people begun to think it was ours,"

Antauri and Jinmay asked at the same time "What? Why?" Antauri forgot to sign so he was making monkey noises.

Luckily, the monkey translator reached anywhere in the city so they could understand him, he was just signing for old times sake. The three sisters simply stated "Family history". Before either of them could press further, Minerva changed the subject "Hey, I think the cookies have cooled enough to be iced. Lily, you want to help?"

In one smooth motion, Lily spun her chair back around and vaulted over it like a gymnast to stand next to where her older sister was dropping a frosting tip into a pastry bag and filling it with orange and yellow icing and grabbed a bowl of pink icing and a butter knife.

Jinmay got up and went over too "Need any help?"

"Oh, we're fine, but if you really want to you can help with the base coat," Lily held up another knife and the two started spreading the pink icing over the cookies.

Jinmay noticed all the cookies were heart shaped and Minerva was drawing little flame designs. "Why are they all…?"

Minerva figured out what she was referring to "It's our emblem. It's how the store got its name and motto. 'Hearth to Heart Trading Post, bringing the warmth of home from our hearth to your heart',"

"That's cool,"

They all talked some more for a while, Jinmay told them about herself and Lily, Minerva and Raven told her more about themselves while getting caught up with Antauri about what he and the Hyperforce had been up to all this time.

After a while, Jinmay and Antauri had to leave. They all went to the main part of the store and hugged a temporary goodbye.

Raven-"don't be strangers now, you're welcome anytime,"

Minerva-"Say hello to the others for us please,"

Lily-"And take some cookies with you, I'm sure you all will enjoy something sweet after everything you guys have been through,"

Antauri accepted the box of cookies "_Thank you, I'll give the team your regards and see if we can stop by more often,"_

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When Antauri and Jinmay got back to the Super Robot, Antauri asked her to promise something "Jinmay, About what I told you before… I was going to tell the others once I was certain, but not a moment sooner, could you please not tell anyone just yet?"

Jinmay looked at him and gave him that sweet blinking smile she always does "Okay, I won't tell,"

"Thank you," the two went to the main room where Sprx and Otto were playing a video game while Nova watched from where she sat on the arm rest of the couch next to Sprx.

Jinmay went to put the groceries away and Antauri silently set the box of cookies and broke the sticker sealing it shut. Chiro and Mandarin came in talking about something but stopped when they saw Antauri taking off his disguise.

Chiro came up and put a hand on Antauri's shoulder, making the silver monkey turn to look at him. "Here you are, we went to your room to check on you but you weren't there,"

Mandarin recognized the disguise Antauri was wearing and crossed his arms with a frown like a parent who had been waiting up at night to catch their kids sneaking back into the house when they shouldn't have been out in the first place. "Antauri, where were you?"

Antauri held up his bag from the shop and said "I needed something from town but it was rather…" Antauri looked away… embarrassed? ashamed? "…awkward to ask Jinmay about so since it wasn't going to take long I went along and got it myself,"

Antauri knew his hesitation was suspicious, as did Mandarin "Well, that still doesn't explain why you were wearing…" then Mandarin noticed the picture on the bag and eyed the red and tan box on the table. "Are those what I think they are?"

Chiro was confused "What? What are they?"

Antauri nodded "Yes, we stopped by there because I remembered they had what I was looking for, They asked us to say hello to everyone for them and sent a box of cookies home with us,"

Mandarin nodded and said "Alright, although as sick as you were last night I don't think you should have been wandering around the city, but I'm glad you're alright," the 'we will finish this later' went unsaid as he looked over to the others on the couch. "Do you want to tell them or should I?"

"Tell them what?" Chiro was getting sick of being out of the loop of what happened on the team before he came.

Antauri understood and filled him in "Some old friends of ours gave us a box of homemade cookies, last time we had _their _cookies Gibson and Sprx got into an all-out brawl over the last one,"

When Antauri was done talking, Mandarin just simply shouted "Hey! Raven, Lily and Minerva sent cookies! Who wants one?"

As soon as they heard the word "Cookies" the game was paused and the three monkeys came scurrying over like puppies called for feeding time.

Mandarin grabbed a cookie for himself and one for Antauri before stepping away when Otto threw the box's lid aside and inhaled deeply "Oh yeah, those are the sisters' cookies alright. Who got'em,"

Mandarin handed the extra cookie to Antauri, who handed it to Chiro, and took a bite of his own "Antauri went with Jinmay when she went to town and they stopped at 'Hearth to Heart' and got them,"

Jinmay came up and grabbed herself a cookie and sat down in a nearby chair. "Raven, Lily and Minerva say 'hi' by the way,"

Sprx suddenly looked really miffed "You went to 'Hearth to Heart' and didn't tell us? If you weren't sick I'd kick your shiny metal…" Nova shoved a cookie in his mouth and he stopped talking in favor of eating it.

"Sprx, the only reason you ever wanted to go there was for the cookies and to flirt with the girls, you got your cookie and you already flirt enough as it is so stop being such a big baby,"

They each grabbed a cookie and started eating, except for Chiro. Nova noticed he was just sitting in a chair staring at the cookie Antauri handed him but not eating it and went to sit next to him. "Chiro, what's wrong?"

"Hmm? Oh, nothing, it's just…" Chiro ran his fingers through his hair "We've all been together for so long, but there's still so much I don't know about you guys,"

Now that Nova thought about it, the boy was right. "Well, we don't know much about you from before you found us, so I guess we just need to take some time to actually get to know each other more,"

"Yeah, outside the occasional 'Oh, by the way, I don't know if you knew this already but you should really know this about me,',"

Antauri coyly grabbed another cookie and went over to Gibson's lab which doubled as the med. bay, but not before Sprx saw him "Hey, Antauri, where are you going?"

Antauri turned to look at the red monkey "I'm going to go find Gibson,"

"I'm right here," Gibson stepped out of the lab area.

They all looked at him, Sprx made one of his usual wisecracks "Hey, Brain Strain, where have you been? We haven't seen you since breakfast,"

Gibson rubbed his eyes tiredly grumbling "Where do you think I've been, Sprx?"

Antauri handed him the cookie he was going to bring him "Here, Raven, Lily and Minerva say 'hello',"

Sprx and Otto snickered "Hear that Gibson? _Minerva _says '_Hell-o-o_'," Sprx elbowed Otto playfully while the green monkey covered his mouth with his hands to keep from laughing out loud.

Gibson blushed, and Chiro noticed "Gibson, do you and this 'Minerva' _like _each other?"

Gibson held up his hands and shook his head "N-no, well, at least not like _that. _ We were really close friends,"

Mandarin raised an eyebrow "'Close friends'? Gibson, that girl swooned at the very ground you walk on,"

Nova smiled sweetly at him "Yeah and not only did you never shut up about her whenever we got back from there, she sometimes asked me things like 'what does Gibson like in a girl?' or 'Doesn't he get lonely in a lab by himself?'," she pretended to gag and Chiro joined in on the snickering.

Not wanting to be embarrassed further, Gibson turned to go back to the lab.

Before he could actually go inside, however, Antauri caught him by the arm "Gibson, may I have a word with you in private?"

Gibson looked at the hand grasping him and then at Antauri "Might I ask what about?"

Antauri leaned closer and mumbled in a low hushed voice "The same thing we talked about a few weeks ago,"

Gibson's eyes widened and he jerked his thumb over his shoulder "Medical lab, now," the two monkeys vanished from sight without another word.

Behind them, Chiro stopped laughing long enough to take a bite of his cookie "Holy Shuggazoom, these _are _good..."

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Antauri sat on the edge of the examination table while Gibson examined him and asked questions.

"Well, from what you have told me you are definitely experiencing the early symptoms, how long have you been feeling like this?"

Antauri thought about it "I have been feeling… off… for about a week now but yesterday I passed out during meditation, the nausea started shortly after that but I didn't really get sick until last night,"

Gibson started digging around in a few drawers and cabinets for something. "In that case, if there was anything to find it would still be too soon to find on a scan just yet. However, there is a test I have for you to take. You don't have to take it right now, but I'll give to you so you have it with you when you get the chance,"

Antauri reached into the paper bag he brought with him "Actually, That is what I got from town today,"

Gibson snorted "One of those at-home 'error proof' tests? Antauri, please, those aren't always as accurate as the name suggests," he found what he was looking for "Ah, here we go, if you would just…" Gibson turned around and they saw they were holding identical narrow pink boxes and looked at each other.

Antauri held up the one he was holding "How about I just…"

"Yeah," Gibson put the one he was holding away "Let me know if you need another…"

"I got three of them today," Antauri put the box back in his bag and shook it to prove his point.

"Oh, Alright, let me know how they turn out. If you have any questions just ask,"

Antauri nodded his thanks and left for the bathroom to take the first test.

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_Later that evening_

Antauri sat alone in his room with his legs drawn up to his chest, several objects surrounding him; one was a cup of ginger tea which Raven had recommended for what could very well have been morning sickness-he already drank most of it and it actually did seem to help-the other three would tell him if that actually was the case or if he was just sick.

The first test he took right after he spoke with Gibson was right next to the cup, its results were positive. He hadn't known whether to squeal with joy or break down crying when he saw those two pink lines on the tiny view screen, but he kept it together when he was around the others.

Next to the first test was the one he took right before dinner, had it been positive he would have told the others; it was negative. Now he was just confused, but he knew one was false so now he was waiting on the tie-breaker, the third test.

He just took the third test and snuck back to his room, it was lying face down next to a small timer counting down how long it would be until the results were in.

_3…2…1…DING!_

Antauri gingerly picked up the small plastic stick with his fingers and took a deep breath '_As Otto would say, Here goes nothing,'_ slowly letting his bated breath out, he turned it over and looked at the little screen that showed…

Two pink lines, positive.

Numb as an icicle, Antauri put the used tests back into the bag to show Gibson later and carefully climbed into bed as if he were suddenly made of shale; incredibly dense and brittle.

Once he was situated, laying on his back and staring up at the ceiling, he slowly brought his hands up to rest on his abdomen.

'_Well, this certainly changes things, doesn't it?'_

* * *

_**AN.: Oof-ta, this one is long. Sorry I hadn't updated in a while but I spent the Christmas holiday in a place with no internet so I couldn't upload. Thanks to everyone that has reviewed so far, like DigiDespairheart, UgunsGreka Fans and CRAZYCOLORS098.**_

_**For those that read the other two chapters, I'm sorry if anyone seemed **__too __**OOC, but I haven't seen the show in a while (I'll have to watch a few episodes again for character review) and as you saw if Antauri seemed OOC he had a good reason.**_

_**And before anyone asks, I'm sorry if I overdo it with the OC's here, but everyone I come up with has a purpose for the story, there not just a bunch of self-inserts or filler I use to "spice up" the story for further amusement. **_

_**Questions, suggestions and comments are welcome, any flames will be used to brew coffee to make Otto even more hyper than usual before we send him after the flamers that sent them!**_


	4. Chapter 4

Monkey Doodle

Chapter 3

Rated T, just to be safe, for language, violence, and mentions of adult themes

_**AN: hey sorry it's been a while. Just to let everyone know, since I got a review asking about this, I might not be following the exact story line from the show but I'll try to stick with the basic plot of the show, some things will just be left out or added on to keep things consistent with the story as well.**_

Disclaimer: I, Lady Quickshift do not own S-

Otto: * runs past waving his arms around wildly* Whee! *giggles*

Lady Q: What the…?

Nova: Gibson stayed up all night and made himself some super strong coffee this morning so he could stay awake during the day, somehow Otto got a hold of it and has been running around like that ever since.

Lady Q: well, I know since you guys belong to Disney, ABC Family and Ciro Neili I can't exactly tell you what to do, but should he even be allowed to drink that much coffee?

Monkey team: *shakes their heads*

Mandarin: come on let's go get him before he hurts himself, or anyone else.

Lady Q: Yeah, I know I said I was going to give him some coffee in the last chapter but I didn't really mean it, Well, I wouldn't have let it get this bad. Let me know if you need help.

* * *

The next morning Antauri woke up and went to the labs, clutching his little paper bag close to his side to conceal it from immediate view without making it obvious he was hiding something. Thankfully there was no one else in the hall way at this hour; he didn't feel ready to talk to anyone else just yet.

He knew Gibson was in the labs because the blue scientist was the only one Antauri couldn't sense in everyone's rooms and there was only one other place in the Robot he could go. He came up to the door and knocked, just to be polite and let Gibson know he was coming in in case he was interrupting something.

"Come in," Gibson's disgruntled voice came through the door before it opened to let the silver monkey inside. "Antauri, what are you doing up so late?"

Antauri raised a brow ridge. "Late? Gibson it's almost eight in the morning," deducing what might have happened, he crossed his arms "Did you stay up all night again?"

Gibson held his head in one hand and put away his project and equipment away with the other "It would appear so,"

Antauri sighed and leaned on an examination table. "Gibson, I thought we talked about this, you can't keep doing this, it will start to endanger your health before long. What are you even working on?"

"I know, it's just…" Gibson quickly changed subject "I'm sorry, did you need something or were you just coming to check on me?"

Antauri set the bag on the table "You said you wanted to see what the results were,"

Gibson's eyes widened when he spotted the bag. "Great Scott…" he opened the bag and placed its contents on the table where he could see them and double check what he saw. "Two out of three..."

Antauri nodded, but then he started to feel woozy again before he could say anything else. Gibson saw him grimace and start to slide down to the floor with one hand in front of his face and put two and two together.

"Antauri, I suggest you sit down," he pushed a waste bin toward the silver monkey, who pulled up a chair and slumped down on it, with his tail while getting a paper cup and filling it with water. "Here," Gibson handed the cup to Antauri who took it with a thankful smile and took a tentative sip. "Let me guess, morning sickness?"

Antauri nodded slowly, embarrassed.

Gibson crossed his arms with one hand on his head like he always does when he's thinking. "Well, this news is certainly…" unable to think of an appropriate word he let his hand fall to rest on his arms and looked at Antauri "I'm guessing you are going to want to try to keep it?"

Antauri looked up at him warily "What else are you suggesting?"

Not wanting to anger the other simian, Gibson chose his words carefully "Well, adoption is always an option, though I can't think of anyone who would take on one of our offspring and be able to raise it properly. And, although personally I rather dislike the third option, there is…"

Antauri bristled and spoke in an eerily calm baritone "Gibson, I understand you are trying to help, but if you even say the third option I will partially phase you through a wall and leave you there until one of the others cut you out,"

Gibson held up his hands with a sheepish little laugh to try to placate the silver monkey before sighing in relief. "So you _do_ want it,"

Antauri gently held a hand over his flat stomach and sighed "Yes, I do. The circumstances may not be the greatest, but this is my choice and it would be wrong to terminate a new life in cold blood just because it seemed convenient at the time. Besides, you said yourself that this could give the team something to look forward to,"

While Gibson saw his point and agreed to some level, the scientist in him focused on the facts rather than wishful thinking. "But there is still a fifty percent chance they might not see this as an entirely good thing,"

Antauri nodded "Even so, I'll have to tell the others soon,"

"Alright, but I suggest we tell them sooner rather than later to avoid any unnecessary conflict,"

"We?"

Gibson pressed a few buttons on the computer console to bring up files containing Antauri's scans and some of his own notes on the matter and save them onto a disc he could run on the main computer in the command center. "Someone is going to have to explain all the complexities of how this was possible to the others. I'm not going to make you face this alone,"

Antauri nodded with a soft smile "Thank you, Gibson,"

The two left the labs and Antauri, after sending Gibson to bed for some much needed rest, went to the kitchen to meet everyone for breakfast when they all got up.

Antauri was just finishing putting butter on some toast when the others came into the room. "Good morning,"

Sprx smirked at him "Well, look who's finally joining us for breakfast,"

Antauri simply put the toast on a whole plate of it and set it on the table for everyone.

Chiro grabbed a slice with a smile "Thanks Antauri. Are you feeling any better?"

Antauri forced a smile and nodded, hoping no one noticed how nervous he really was.

No such luck, Mandarin could read him like a book he read one time too many. "Are you sure?" he felt his forehead "You do feel a bit warm, and you are shaking pretty badly,"

Antauri looked down at his hands and saw he really was shaking and clasped his hands behind his back to try to keep them and his tail still—they would have made the tremors even more obvious.

"What's the matter Antauri? Are you cold?" Too late, even Otto noticed as he trotted into the room and sat at the table.

Antauri sighed and sat down with his hands in his lap, well aware of his teammates' worried gazes.

Nova leaned closer "Antauri, what's wrong? You can tell us,"

Antauri shook his head. "Nothing, well, nothing is _wrong_ at least… but there is something I need to talk to you all about,"

They all leaned forward expectantly "What?"

The silver monkey looked up at their faces—Nova and Chiro looked worried, Sprx looked like he knew there was something going on but didn't know what, Otto looked curious and Mandarin kept his features decidedly blank. "How about we wait until everyone is here to hear it?"

Otto slumped forward onto the table like a little kid that just got told they couldn't go to the circus. "Ah c'mon, Antauri, why can't you tell us now? We're all here,"

Chiro pulled him upright so he wouldn't face plant into his cereal "Actually, Otto, Jinmay isn't here and I don't think Gibson is even up yet,"

"Gibson stayed up all night working in the lab, I sent him back to his room after I spoke with him this morning. I have a feeling he and Jinmay both have a pretty good idea what I'm referring to right now,"

They all tried to get him to elaborate but he just ate his breakfast and ignored them until they started in on their own food and changed the subject. As soon as they were done they all left to go about their daily activities.

Antauri went up on the Robot's shoulder to try to meditate away from the others, but he just couldn't concentrate so he activated his scanners and looked around. Down below, he saw the people of Shuggazoom rushing to get to wherever it was they were going or just loitering around enjoying the day.

He wasn't looking for anyone in particular but he did recognize a few; those two boys B.T. and Glenny were at the Hoverburger eating at the outside tables while Mr. Gakslapper worked in the kitchen of his burger stand only stopping to smile and wave at customers or passersby, Ma and Pa Shinko were passing out cookies and other sweets to children and teens that came into their arcade. He also spotted Jinmay down in the park; she always took walks there every morning when the weather was nice.

Antauri smiled to himself, the rest of the team might take times of peace like this for granted, but he always saw them for what they were—a time to be thankful you are alive and be ready for what happens next.

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_Later, in the Command Center_

The team was gathering for a team meeting, to discuss their next plan of attack, and to hear this "news" Antauri seemed to be holding back from them. While they were waiting for said monkey to arrive along with Gibson, the rest of them whispered among themselves.

"What do you think it is?" Nova leaned against Sprx's chair where the red monkey sat polishing his magnets so she wouldn't have to raise her voice.

"What? Whatever Antauri is trying to hide from us? Your guess is as good as mine,"

Chiro didn't necessarily like his tone "I'm sure he had a good reason Sprx," he and Jinmay were sharing his chair because they didn't have enough seats. Sprx pointed at the pink-haired girl "So why does she get to know and we don't?"

"Antauri said he wanted to make sure before he told anyone,"

"Tell us what?" Jinmay bit her lip, she promised Antauri she wouldn't tell but they kept asking her questions and she didn't want to lie to them…

"In other words, Antauri will tell us when he is ready, in the meantime we are just going to have to be patient," Jinmay gave Mandarin a thankful smile for drawing everyone's attention away from her until they all heard the sound of someone coming down the tubes and Gibson came in holding a data disk.

"Ah good, everyone is here except… Antauri, don't you dare phase through that wall,"

Antauri pulled away from the wall and floated over to his seat and didn't deactivate his "ghost form" until he was seated in his chair which Mandarin sat on top of in a lotus position.

Gibson set his data disk on the main computer console and turned to the others. "Now then, what manner of business will we be attending to first?"

Chiro tried to look serious, but he kept glancing at his mentor out the corner of his eye. "Um, I can only think of two things we need to go over right now. Should we discuss our next plan of attack first or…" they all looked at Antauri.

The silver monkey gripped the sides of his chair and sat up straighter "Chiro, if it's all the same to all of you, perhaps I should go first. What I have to say is not only important but it might affect whatever plan we make today,"

Chiro nodded, letting his mentor speak.

Antauri took a deep breath and told them the way had had been rehearsing all morning to try to find the right words. "Now, this may be hard to believe, but there is no doubt about it…" he closed his eyes gripped the arm rests of his seat tighter. "…I-I'm pregnant,"

The room went still; it was so quiet he could almost hear everyone's heartbeats with his robotically advanced hearing.

Then Sprx burst out laughing "Oh, that was good Antauri, you actually had us going there,"

Antauri opened his eyes, greatly troubled by this. '_He thinks I'm JOKING?'_

Gibson frowned and turned to the red monkey with a scolding tone "Sprx, Antauri isn't joking!"

Sprx just laughed again, this time not so enthusiastically. "Oh, and you even got Gibson to play along! I don't know how you managed that but that just makes it better!"

Slowly, the others came out of their shock, Nova saw the sad disappointment in Antauri's blue eyes "Uh, Sprx, I don't think he's joking,"

Jinmay got up and went to put a hand on Antauri's shoulder "So, the tests you got in town worked?"

Antauri nodded and took out the crinkled paper bag and levitated the three white plastic sticks to where everyone could see them with the screens facing down. He had written the letter 'A' on each one next to the date and time he took them. They all gasped when he flipped them over so they could see the results.

"I thought those things turned blue when they're positive, that's how it is in the movies," Otto reached out to grab one for a better look, causing Nova to promptly freak out.

"Eww, Otto, don't touch it! People pee on those!"

Unsure whether he should be relieved or worried that they were more focused on the tests themselves than what they said, Antauri slowly relaxed his grip on the sides of his chair. "Nova, that's only necessary for the test strip on the end which has a plastic cover over it, and to answer your question Otto, the way the results are displayed depend on the test, I just chose the kind that show two pink lines for positive and one for negative,"

Otto held up the one that tested negative "Hold on, this one's screen is cracked, I can't see it very clearly," he grabbed one of the positive tests and started tinkering with it. "Let's see, just pop this thing out here…" he pulled apart the negative test and took the little viewing window out. "…and swap it out for this one…" he did the same for the positive test and held it up to the light to check it for cracks before replacing the cracked screen. "There we go," he looked at it and saw it had two lines rather than one. "Hey this one has two lines too, the crack on the screen was just covering the other one up!"

Everyone's eyes widened when they heard this. "Are you serious?" Sprx grabbed the test from Otto, not realizing the plastic cover on one of the ends came off in Otto's hand. "This can't be happening. I mean you're a guy..." Sprx stopped and stared straight ahead "I'm holding his 'pee stick', aren't I?"

"Yep,"

"Ugh, Gross!" he quickly handed it back to Otto and wiped his hands on his legs on his way back to his chair to sit down.

Chiro was the last one to recover from the initial shock—Mandarin was just being really quiet—and dragged his eyes away from the white sticks and back to his teammates "Well, since the evidence is right in front of us it obviously is happening; but Sprx is right, how is this possible?"

"I believe I can shed some light on that," Gibson went to set up the holographic display and inserted his disc in the drive.

"What are you the other dad?"

Gibson stiffened up and whirled around with his fists clenched and a little vein popping out of his forehead "Which one of you said that?" no one dared answer so he crossed his arms and continued in a "matter-of-fact" tone "And no I am NOT the 'other dad', I just ran some tests and did the research to confirm how this is possible," he activated the holographic display. "Now if everyone could turn their attention to the screen… Antauri, I apologize if this gets too personal,"

Antauri waved him off and sank deeper into his chair while Gibson began his lecture, using his tail to point out specific details. By the time he was done he had done a decent job explaining the basic principle—even if he droned on for a few moments here and there—but there was one question.

"But… how? Who?"

Antauri fought the urge to curl up in his chair, or better yet phase through the thing and go back to his room and lock himself inside, and steeled himself '_they were going to find out sooner or later,'_

"A while back, when Mandarin's clone took me back to the Alchemist's lab, he said he was going to try to breed a new generation of cyborg-monkey warriors to serve him. He was originally targeting Nova but he got me instead, since the silver monkey's body didn't have an actual gender the Alchemist never thought to give it just one so he… made some adjustments to my robotic body making me, in his words, 'a male that can bear offspring' and he…" he couldn't say anymore, but he didn't need to.

Nova came over and hugged him, at a loss for words, while the others just stared at him with pity, concern as well as disgust and horror on their faces.

Antauri knew only the first two were actually aim at him, but their silence worried him.

Then Sprx spoke up "So… what are you gonna do with… _it_?"

Antauri frowned; he didn't like the pilot's tone, not one bit. "Not what_ you_ seem to be suggesting, I know that much,"

Gibson tapped his chin, deep in thought "What I still don't understand is how a _Formless_ clone was able to achieve something like this, they don't have actual genetics because they are made of dark ooze and given shape and animation by Skeleton King's power, so how… unless…"

Mandarin sat up and looked at Sprx "If you're worried about him having a Formless child, you have nothing to worry about. That monster knows he doesn't have any DNA of his own but I overheard him ranting to himself about how he found some samples of monkey DNA in the Alchemist's stuff and was going to use that to do the deed,"

Otto tilted his head to the side curiously "So, you're actually having a baby?"

Antauri nodded with a slight smile "Yes, Otto, I am,"

Otto squealed in delight and jumped into Antauri's chair next to him and hugged him, Nova jumped out of the hyper green monkey's way. "I can't believe it, Antauri's having a baby!" Otto pulled away and held him at arms-length so he could look at him when he asked him, with a straight face "Are you gonna grow boobs?"

Antauri used his telekinetic abilities to stabilize the chair after Otto sent it spinning, almost throwing Mandarin off of it. "No, Otto, I'm pretty sure _that _won't happen, now if you would please…"

Otto realized he was almost sitting on Antauri and climbed off "Right, sorry,"

Mandarin jumped down, being as he was almost falling off anyway, to give Antauri a hug. "Congratulations, brother, if you need any help or 'parenting tips' just ask,"

"And why would you have 'parenting tips'?"

Mandarin turned to give the snarky red monkey a piece of his mind but Antauri stopped him. "Let it go, Mandarin, he doesn't know any better,"

Mandarin let it slide, just this once, and Jinmay and Nova both gave him a hug and their own congratulations.

He looked back over at Sprx who smiled, he was too proud to go over and hug him like everyone else had—the only person he _ever _hugged was Nova—but he didn't seem too upset about the situation and that was good enough for Antauri.

Lastly, Antauri turned to Chiro—the one whose opinion mattered most—and waited for him to say something. The boy just sat there quietly with a gob smacked expression. This worried him. "Chiro… Are you alright?"

Chiro blinked and rubbed the back of his head "Yeah, sorry, it's just…"

"A lot to take in?"

"Yeah," Chiro came over and gently hugged him "But I'm really happy for you, Antauri,"

Antauri hugged him back, almost going weak from relief "Thank you," he looked past Chiro at the others "All of you,"

Sprx turned to Gibson "So how long until he… um…"

Mandarin rolled his eyes. "Until he what? Starts showing? Goes into labor? Gives birth? Gets so out of it from the pain that he curses up a storm and threatens to kill us all but doesn't really mean it?"

Otto gasped "Antauri wouldn't do that, would you?"

Antauri looked at Gibson, then at Mandarin and back again, clearly unsure of the answer.

Gibson started to answer, then realized he didn't have one either. "Hmm, hadn't gotten that far yet. I will have to…"

Antauri crossed his arms "Gibson, I am fine with you running tests and what-not but if anything along the lines of 'dissection' comes at the end of that sentence… remember what we talked about in the labs this morning?"

Gibson made a soft squeaky "eep!" sound and hid behind Sprx's chair "I believe that answers your question, Otto,"

Antauri rubbed his temples "I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me,"

"…mood swings…" Mandarin coughed into his fist, earning a look from a bemused Antauri. The orange monkey ignored him and kept talking "Artemis carried Eclipse for about seven months before giving birth to her, if that helps in any way,"

The others were confused by this "Who are Artemis and Eclipse?"

Mandarin fiddled nervously with the orange vest he always wore. "My family," he gave them a soft smile that said "would you believe me if I told this was true?"

Nova suddenly realized why he would know about parenting stuff. "Wait, you mean you actually found yourself a lady friend and had a kid?"

Mandarin nodded "Yes, Nova, I was in the cell next to you all in the Citadel of Bone when my clone was trying to brainwash all of you and was released when Chiro took out a few walls when he rescued all of you with the Super Robot,"

Sprx got suspicious "So why didn't you come back,"

Mandarin gave him an exasperated look. "Tell me the truth, S-P-R-X-7-7, after you all sent my clone to prison what would you have done if I came back, hm?"

They all started to answer but hung their heads in shame. "That's what I thought, anyway…" he retold his story to them all before going over how all of it was possible in such a short time.

"…the whole "escape the Citadel of Bone" thing was over a year ago; Artemis and I met after I drifted in space for about a week, we were seeing each other for three months, I think you can imagine what happened next, as I said she was pregnant for seven months before giving birth to our daughter Eclipse, who was about a month or so old when I got captured the second time and was in a cage for another month before you all found me,"

Gibson clapped his hands together "Well, now that that's cleared up, shall we continue planning what we are going to do about the Dark One Worm we have unintentionally relinquished upon the cosmos, and the Mandarin clone…"

Otto raised his hand "Ooh, ooh, let's call him Ma'lone!"

"Ma'lone?"

"Yeah, we can't call him 'Mandarin' because Mandarin's Mandarin, and 'Mandarin's clone' is too much of a mouthful,"

Mandarin leaned closer to Chiro and mumbled out the corner of his mouth "He still names all the monsters we fight?"

Chiro whispered back "Yeah, but the names he comes up with usually end in "-tor"," Chiro spoke up so everyone could hear him again "You know, Otto's got a point there,"

Gibson growled, trying to keep his temper in check, and continued "Alright then, how are we going to hunt down the Dark One Worm, and _Ma'lone_, and protect the city with just the six…"

"Seven," "Eight" Jinmay and Mandarin would not be left out.

"… right, sorry, eight of us when Ma'lone could be anywhere on the planet by now and the Worm has left the planet all together.

Sprx folded his hands behind his head and leaned back in his chair "Well, there hasn't been much to defend the city from since the Worm left, Skeleton king crashed the Citadel to break the egg open so he can't make any more monsters from the ooze pit he had on there. Heck, it's kind of hard for him to make any monsters at all when he's a hood ornament on the big ugly slug's head,"

"Sprx is right, there really isn't much to defend the city from anymore, so why don't we…"

Antauri crossed his arms "Nova, it is our sworn duty to protect Shuggazoom city,"

"It is also our life's mission to fight evil. That was why we were created. We may have promised the city we would keep them safe, but we promised the Alchemist that we would fight to protect the _universe _from the evil he was going to become,"

They all looked at Mandarin "How do you know about the Alchemist? We didn't know about him until Skeleton King trapped us in that dream realm and showed us how he created us and wiped our memories?"

Mandarin tapped the side of his head "When Skeleton King tried to get information for the clone he removed any mental blocks that I could have used to keep anything from him, that included the one that kept us from remembering anything from before,"

Nova looked over at Gibson, almost hopeful "Does that mean our memories can be brought back too?"

"I don't know, I'll have to look into this more later but we are getting off topic here,"

Chiro went over to the console to bring up two maps, one of Shuggazoom and one of the surrounding galaxy "Gibson's right, we need to make a plan. We can't defend the city if we're running all over the galaxy looking for the Worm but we can't let it destroy the rest of the galaxy until it gets strong enough to come back and finish off Shuggazoom,"

Mandarin stood next to Chiro and looked up at the screen "If we can take out Ma'lone that's not only one less thing for us to worry about but I think that's the only thing left for us to defend the city from, all they've ever really needed us for was to protect them from whatever Skeleton king sent their way,"

Otto hopped back into his chair and spun it around to face the screen. "Yeah, and all the mutant monsters and stuff"

"Which Skeleton King sent, Otto,"

Chiro looked down at Mandarin "What about the ones like Cloggy colon creature? We didn't find anything that proved he was working for Skeleton King."

"Skeleton king found Cloggy colon creature wandering space in that oddly shaped ship of his and told him there was an entire planet of humans that were ripe for the picking and the only thing to stop him was a group of monkeys. How do you think that monster _found _Shuggazoom in the first place?"

"Right, so…" Chiro counted on his fingers "… We get rid of Ma'lone, and then we go after the Worm and destroy it and come back to Shuggazoom,"

Antauri spoke up "But what will happen to the city while we are gone?"

"What about Jinmay?" Nova nodded toward the girl "She's been doing well in her training. I bet she can keep an eye on things while we're gone,"

Jinmay nervously looked down "I don't know…"

Chiro smiled and gave her an encouraging thumbs up "You'll do fine Jinmay,"

"If you want you come out with us on patrol or something to see how you can handle it,"

Gibson nodded "For once, I agree with Otto, she can fill in for Antauri since he can't get involved in any serious fighting," Everyone had momentarily forgotten about that.

Mandarin sulked "If Jinmay's filling in for Antauri, what am I going to do?"

Sprx got up in his face "Oh no, you are _not _piloting again, not after you 'borrowed' Fist Rocket three way back when and crashed it into a building!"

Mandarin gently pushed him away "Right, I forgot about that, you wouldn't talk to me until it was fixed,"

"CAN WE _PLEASE _FOCUS HERE?"

Chiro put a hand on his head, "Okay, before Gibson has an aneurism, so far our plan is get rid of Ma'lone and, if Jinmay is up to it, she can be in charge of making sure the city doesn't fall apart while we go after the Worm and get rid of it once and for all. Anyone have anything to add?"

Mandarin held up his hand "Might I make a suggestion, Chiro?"

"Go ahead,"

"What if we go after Ma'lone and Jinmay accompanies us. If she can hold her own with that and is willing to try on her own she can stay and be the city's temporary guardian while we go after the Worm. Like Nova and Sparx said, Right now he is the biggest threat towards Shuggazoom and she has in fact been doing superbly in her training lately,"

Chiro looked at the girl in question "Your choice Jinmay,"

Jinmay looked at all of them and came to a decision "Well, it's not like I've been doing all this training so I can get in shape for swimsuit season," she gave Chiro a wink and they all laughed.

"Well, I guess that takes care of everything,"

Antauri remembered something. "Not quite everything…"

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They all walked through town until they came to the shop with the stained glass windows.

"Hasn't changed a bit, has it?" Nova looked up at the building, it seemed like forever since they had been there but the shop itself looked as if they were just there yesterday.

"No it hasn't" Antauri walked at the front of the group, being as most of the others had nearly forgotten just where the place was located.

Sprx noticed Gibson was fidgeting and making more of a fuss over his fur than usual. "Hey, chill out, Brain Strain, if your girlfriend really cares about you she'll probably like you no matter how ridiculous you look. If not, than she probably forgot you exist any so why bother,"

Gibson crossed his arms, muttering "Hmpf, 'girlfriend' indeed. We are not even the same species. How illogical," he looked away, hoping no one noticed his bitter tone.

They entered and held the door for the person behind them until everyone was inside, this time Lily came out to see who it was. When she saw it was them she squealed and ducked her head behind the curtain "Hey, Minerva, Pay up! He _did_ bring the rest of them with him,"

They heard a loud thud and Lily came back out followed closely by Minerva. Gibson quickly smoothed his fur down again and waved "Hello, Minerva,"

Minerva saw him and smiled back "Hello, Gibson,"

Gibson noticed he was still waving like an idiot and pulled his arm down '_Stop that, you fool, Say something!' _"My, you've… um… grown?"

She gave him a wry smile "Thanks for noticing," they both noticed everyone staring and blushed slightly until Raven stepped from behind the curtain a moment later.

Raven smiled at all the monkeys and Jinmay but it disappeared when she saw Chiro "Who is this?"

Chiro looked at her with the same serious look she was giving him, something seemed… odd about these three. "I'm Chiro. I'm guessing you're Raven?"

"Oh, so you're Chiro," she looked him up and down "I thought you would be taller,"

Chiro smirked back "I thought you would be older,"

She snorted a short laugh. "You've got spunk, kid. I'll give you that,"

Chiro pressed again "No, seriously, I thought you would be older. Antauri said they knew you guys when Mandarin was still on the team and when I found the Super Robot with them inside the thing was covered in so much dust and moss it looked like it had been there for a while,"

"Chiro, how old were you when you found them?"

Chiro thought a moment "thirteen"

Raven leaned against the counter "The monkey team disappeared about a decade ago, you would have been too young to remember them but I was thirteen myself when they went missing, Minerva was twelve, our sister Val was eleven and Lily was ten,"

"There are four of you?"

"Not anymore, Val went missing a few months after the monkeys did. No one's seen her since,"

"I'm sorry,"

Minerva waved him off "Don't be, unless it was your fault, which I doubt. Anyway, at the time this shop actually belonged to our parents but then they bought a new place closer to the main part of town where business was better. Once Raven turned eighteen she moved out of our parents' place and came back here, Lily and I did the same when we came of age and we've been running the place ever since,"

They caught sight of Antauri "Hey, how are you feeling today?"

"Better, thank you," Last time he was there Antauri used sign language for the sake of familiarity but now that they knew the monkey translator worked on them even outside the Robot he felt free to speak out loud.

"So, did the results come back yet?"

Antauri smiled and gave them a thumbs-up. "Is that a 'Yes I am' thumbs-up or is it a 'No, and I'm glad I'm not' thumbs-up?"

The silver monkey's smile grew and he nodded "I am,"

The three girls squealed and came around to hug him. "Congratulations!"

Otto tugged on Lily's sleeve "Hey, don't we get hugs?"

Lily turned around "Oh, sorry Otto," she hugged him too "Missed you guys,"

Otto hugged back "Missed you too,"

Minerva scooped him up and spun around "Liar, if you missed us as much as we missed you, you would have stopped by to visit us when you weren't being city heroes"

"Ah come on we've been busy,"

"Since when is spending your free time playing video games in the Robot considered busy?"

Sprx scratched his head "How would you know about that?"

Raven went back behind the counter "Antauri snitched on you guys yesterday,"

"Antauri!" four of the monkeys glared at the silver one, wondering what else he told them, Mandarin held up his hand "I haven't,"

Raven pulled the curtain back and beckoned them through the door "Well, we've already caught up with Antauri and got to know Jinmay yesterday, but we've still got some catching up to do with the rest of you. Come on in,"

The monkeys went right to the back. Otto sniffed the air "I smell cookies!"

Chiro ducked behind the curtain "Do you guys bake cookies every day?"

Minerva walked in behind him and went to peer through the little window on the oven "Yeah, when it gets chilly out the heat given off by the oven keeps this place warm enough so we don't have to turn on the actual heater unless it gets REALLY cold,"

Lily climbed up the stairs and sat on the railing "And we just like how the smell of fresh baked cookies fills our little living space back here,"

Everyone found a spot to sit or stand—Lily perched on the railing, Nova sat on the steps, Gibson, Chiro and Jinmay each took a chair by the table where they were joined by Raven, Otto sat on the floor next to the oven where he could breathe in the sweet cookie fumes, Minerva leaned against the oven so Otto couldn't reach in and grab a cookie while they were still cooking, and Antauri and Mandarin levitated off to the side by the window. Seeing there were no other spots to sit, Sprx went over to the steps by Nova and hesitated, as if asking permission, until Nova scooted over to make room for him. The red monkey smiled and sat down next to her.

Once everyone was situated they all got caught up and after a few wild stories about the team's adventures and what the sisters have been up to they were all talking like old friends.

Around early afternoon, they heard the bell over the store's front door jingle and the three sisters jumped.

Raven leaned over to peer around the edge of the curtain that was partially propped open by a broom. "Holy crap, we actually got a customer!"

"I'll get'em!" Lily started to jump off the railing but Minerva ran underneath her. "Hey, it's my turn this time!"

Lily had already hopped off the railing but she caught herself by grabbing the rail and swinging herself back up into a back flip and landing where she was previously seated. "Okay,"

Chiro saw this and did a double-take "Whoa, how did you do that?"

Lily gave him an innocent "Who, me?" look. "Do what?"

"You just jumped off the railing and back flipped back up. How did you do that?"

She hesitated, seeming unwilling to answer, but before she could they heard a crash and obnoxious laughter coming from the shop.

Raven slowly stood up, growling "Please don't tell me _they _came back,"

Lily jumped down again, somehow landing almost silently rather than a loud thud like before, all cheerfulness gone "Afraid so, sis,"

Sighing, Raven walked over to the curtain grumbling "One of these days those two are going to get hurt," she looked over her shoulder at the others "Wait here, we just need to help Minerva in the shop with some rude customers that can't take a hint,"

Antauri sensed who it was and frowned "It would seem those two are gluttons for trouble,"

"Who?"

Antauri looked over at Chiro "You should know, you brought them into the Super Robot with you at one point,"

Chiro slumped and slowly looked up at him through his bangs "B.T. and Glenny?"

Antauri, Raven and Lily nodded "B.T. and Glenny,"

Chiro got up and walked towards the curtain, slamming his fist into his hand. "How about we have a few words with them too?"

Raven reached out, caught him with one arm and spun around while sweeping one leg beneath his legs, sending him sliding back against the edge of the tale to fall back into his chair. "Save it, this is our shop, we got this,"

Lily whispered hopefully as the two ducked beneath the curtain "Can we use our _kunoich_ skills this time?"

Raven thought about it and shook her head "Nah, that would be overkill, maybe next time,"

Lily groaned in disappointment before the curtain fell back into place and Nova's head snapped up "Did she just say…"

Mandarin dropped to the floor and walked over to the curtain "I do believe she did,"

The monkeys all crowded around the door and peered beneath the curtain to get a better look. Chiro came over and peered around the curtain "What's going on?"

Sprx lifted his upper body higher and craned his neck "I don't know, I can't see with the desk in the way," he crawled out to peek around the corner of the counter and was quickly joined by Otto and Gibson.

Out in the shop, Lily went to help Minerva pick up pieces from a broken lamp and some spilt candy that were scattered on the floor while Raven went to stand next to the two bickering trouble makers. B.T and Glenny were standing next to where the barrels of candy were propped up, only now two of the barrels were toppled over on the floor, the pair was obviously arguing about whose fault it was.

Glenny munched on some candy he actually managed to get into a paper bag. "It's not my fault I couldn't reach the ones on top!"

B.T. threw up his arms and yelled back "Well, it's not my fault you're a stupid klutz!"

Glenny poked him in the chest with a finger "Hey, you're taller than me, why couldn't you get it!"

"Get your own candy, clumsy,"

"FINE, Then I'm not sharing with you!"

"Ahem" Raven cleared her throat to get the boys' attention "Can I help you?"

B.T. looked surprised she was there then got this over confident smirk "Sure thing, doll face, my friend and I just realized these barrels aint safe, someone could'a gotten hurt and we were wondering if we could have some of that candy for fr-"

Raven held up a hand "I'm sorry, but we do not offer discounts for merchandise that customers tampered with, you break it you buy it,"

Glenny pressed on "holy man, you're rude. I want to see your manager,"

Raven shifted her stance "You want to see the manager?"

"Yeah, that's right, where is he?"

_He?_ Raven looked at her sisters who rolled their eyes and completed their task before turning to the boys "You do realize we are the only ones that work here, right?"

Glenny looked at the three girls and came to a realization "Are one of you the person in charge?"

B.T. elbowed him "No way, doofus, girls are too stupid to be in charge of anything,"

Glenny thought a moment and snickered "Yeah and they're not all that strong either," he flexed his arm to prove his point.

Lily and Minerva froze, Raven's facial expression went cold, and behind the counter Nova was livid to the point where Chiro had to hold her back.

Lily slowly stood up "Take. That. Back,"

The two just sneered, thinking they had nothing to fear "Or what?" then things happened fast.

Raven grabbed B.T. by the wrist and twisted until he flipped over. There was a blur of red and when it cleared up the bag of candy in Glenny's hands disappeared, Lily was standing next to the counter where she set the bag and flipped through the air to land between them and the barrels. Glenny helped B.T. up and the two started backing towards the door when they felt a breeze against their backs and suddenly Minerva was behind them, blocking their escape.

"You were saying?"

At that point Nova fought her way out from behind the counter and the others were trying to restrain her while she struggled and cursed "Let me at'em! Let me at'em!"

Glenny saw them and smiled "Hey look, it's the monkey team,"

Chiro stepped out from behind the counter "Hey, guys, what's going on?"

B.T. held up his hands pleadingly "Chiro, You gotta help us, we just came in to get some candy and these three psycho bitches went… psycho on us,"

Chiro crossed his arms, unimpressed "You guys do realize we were back here the whole time right?" he nodded towards the counter where the other monkeys came out.

Nova put her hands on her hips. "And after the stuff you guys said and the mess you guys made I don't really see why we _should _help,"

Mandarin went and got the bag of candy to put it back in the right barrels "So, I guess you're on your own here,"

The two nincompoops saw Mandarin and freaked out.

"It's Mandarin!"

"Get him!"

The two rushed over and tried to tackle him to the ground but missed when he simply stepped to the side and scrubbed his face with his hands "For the last time… I. Am. Not. **EVIL! **Great Shuggazoom, I wish people would stop doing that,"

Sprx leaned against the counter with his usual smirk in place "I think these two are the only people in Shuggazoom that haven't already figured it out,"

Antauri went over and helped the two boys up by levitating them to their feet. "Now that that's settled, I believe you two were leaving," the two grumbled under their breath "Unless there was something else you needed," the way he said it wasn't threatening or anything, but they weren't going to try his patience.

The two held up their hands in surrender and shook their heads "N-no, we're going, we're going," the two boys ran towards the door and were almost out when Antauri levitated them a few inches off the ground and pulled them back in. Not even looking at them, he simply pointed at the ground beneath them and said "Drop it," in a firm tone.

The two trouble makers looked at each other and dug in their pockets for various pieces of candy they had stashed there and dropped them on the ground.

"Now, you two go home. And don't let me catch you stealing again… and I will know if you ever do,"

B.T. gave a shaky salute "Yes sir, Mr. creepy monkey, sir," then they turned tail and ran, leaving everyone else in a stupor.

"'Mr. Creepy monkey'?"

Chiro shrugged and turned to the three sisters and crossed his arms "Alright, looks like you three got some explaining to do. Like how Lily did that back flip on the railing, or just now when you ladies went kung fu on those guys,"

Raven and Minerva started putting the barrels back in order while Lily finished with the mess on the floor. "It's not kung fu... It's ninjutsu,"

Chiro and Nova helped hold the barrels in place while Otto and Gibson repaired the frame they were sitting on and the others helped Lily clean up.

Chiro looked over at Minerva "So you three are really ninjas?"

Minerva looked back "Nope, Mystic Kunoich,"

"What?"

Lily dumped the pieces of the broken lamp in the trash and then helped Sprx, Jinmay, Mandarin and Antauri sort through the candy that was on the floor into separate piles based on what barrel they were supposed to go in and another pile for broken or dirty pieces that couldn't be sold. "The term "ninja" describes anyone that knows ninjutsu, a _Kunoich _is a female ninja. We have been secretly training in ninjutsu for years,"

"Cool," Chiro smiled "So can you guys do what the ninja's on TV do? Like walk on water or turn invisible?"

Minerva rolled her eyes "Stereotypes. Ninja don't actually turn invisible, they just blend into their surroundings so well they just seem invisible,"

The boys finished fixing the frame and they set the barrels down. Nova wiped the dust from the barrels off her hands and asked "Where did you learn it all from?"

Lily started putting the sorted candy in the right places "Promise you won't tell anyone?" she looked at Chiro with pleading eyes and he nodded.

Raven gestured with her fingers for them to follow her and she led them to the back again, only this time they went up the stairs.

"Our sensei came to Shuggazoom from another planet just after Val went missing. We were on our way home from somewhere when some creeps cornered us; it was late and there was no one else around. They were just about to get us when Sensei came over the wall and fought them off until they left. But one of them shot her in the arm while they ran away,"

"Her?"

Raven turned to give Chiro a look, causing everyone to bump into each other. "Yes 'her', sorry if I didn't make it more clear that girls can be ninja too,"

They came to the top of the stairs and saw it came to a loft, which itself pretty plain with three beds, two dressers, a closet, a book shelf… if one would overlook the various ninja weapons that hung on the walls or sat on the dressers.

The team looked around in awe; none of the monkeys had been upstairs before.

Raven continued her story "We knew she was hurt bad, we couldn't just leave her there, so we brought her home and kept her up here until she got better. While she recovered we asked her if she could teach us some of her ninja skills. After much persuasion and arguing back and forth she eventually agreed. So for about a week or two we snuck food up to her and kept her a secret from our parents, since she was actually pretty small and the fact they never really came upstairs it was actually easier than we thought.

"Once she was well enough to move about on her own she simply said 'Training starts tomorrow so be ready, I'll find you,' and jumped out the window. The next day she met us outside and showed us this one place where we wouldn't be disturbed and we trained every chance we got. This went on for a few months, but one day she came to us with a box of books and said she had to leave. She wouldn't say why but the box full of books she left us were full of training techniques so we've been training ourselves ever since,"

Nova picked up a book that had strange symbols on it "Is this one of those ninjutsu books?"

"No, this is," Lily exchanged the book in Nova's hand for one she pulled off the bookshelf. "This one is a book of magic,"

"May I see that?" Lily handed the book to Mandarin who flipped through the pages while Nova did the same to the book she was given.

Chiro eyed a sword rack mounted on the wall that held three katana "Where did all these weapons come from?"

He started to reach out and touch one but Minerva appeared next to him and placed her hand on it to prevent him from doing so. "Part of our training was learning to make our own weapons. There's an old wood stove out back that we used for a make-shift forge for metal work and we simply carve whatever wooden parts we need out of old wood we find in the junk yard,"

"You made these? Cool," Otto somehow got a hold of a black mask and put it on his head "Hey guys, check it out, I'm a ninja!" he snuck over to Gibson and hand chopped his shoulder "Hai ya!"

Gibson jumped and knocked him away, rubbing his shoulder "Otto, stop that,"

Minerva pulled one of the katana off the wall, drew it and sliced off the knot on the back of the mask and elbowed the green monkey away while sweeping her leg beneath him, causing him to fall on his backside and the mask to fall cleanly off a few seconds later.

"Please don't mock us,"

Mandarin found a section of the book he was reading that caught his interest "Hey, Antauri, look at this,"

Antauri looked at what his brother was showing him and his eyes widened, his pupils becoming little white rings in the center of his optical orbs.

Lily whispered into Raven's ear behind her hand "Sheesh, you'd think we gave him porn or something,"

"_Lily!_"

Antauri finally pulled his eyes away from the book, his pupils going back to normal "Where did you get this book?"

The girls looked at each other uncertain before answering at the same time. "Sensei,"

Mandarin looked inside the cover to try to find a name or some sign of who the book belonged to previously "Who was your Sensei?"

"Why are you asking?"

Mandarin held up the book open to the page he was just on "This book contains some of the same teachings we learned with the Verron Mystics and it is handwritten so obviously another student wrote it,"

Raven nodded "Yeah, that's why we said we were Mystic Kunoich before, did I forget to mention that?"

"Yeah, kind of,"

Lily shrugged "Well, now you know,"

Antauri took the book for a closer look "This handwriting looks familiar, though I can't quite place it,"

Mandarin whispered "Do you think it's… _her?_"

Antauri held the book like he thought it was going to fall apart. "I don't know,"

Chiro looked at the three sisters, oblivious to his mentors' whispered conversation "So you three are ninjas that know about the Power Primate?"

They nodded and Chiro grinned "That's awesome… you think you can teach me some?"

"Chiro!"

Said teen looked over at Antauri "Not about the Power Primate, you've already been teaching me about that…"

Mandarin mumbled "And you still have a lot more to learn," under his breath while Chiro turned his attention back to the sisters. "I was talking about learning how to be a ninja and all that,"

The three smiled, then turned serious with a simple "No,"

Chiro was taken aback "Why not?"

Raven crossed her arms "We've seen how you fight, Chiro. When you are defending the city from Skeleton King's goons you always hit them hard and where it hurts and then you keep hitting them until they stay down…"

"What's wrong with that?"

"…you also like to show off every chance you get. A ninja operates from the shadows. They strike quickly, silently, and effectively. You will also have to train really hard and a lot. We just don't think you would be able to do that,"

"I bet I can,"

Raven crossed her arms "Oh really?"

"Yeah really,"

They all heard a ding downstairs and Lily ran to the railing "The cookies are done!" she jumped over the railing like she always does.

"Oh, right, I forgot about them," Minerva went over next.

"Hey… a heck with it, wait for me," Raven flipped through the air and landed on the railing, stooping so she didn't hit her head on the ceiling. "Come downstairs, you can read those books down there if you want," then she jumped down.

They all went down the steps, Nova's eyes were glued to the book on ninjutsu fighting styles and training techniques the whole way down.

Chiro was the last to go down and stopped at the top and looked at the railing. '_Don't think I can do it, huh? I'll show them,'_ Chiro went over and looked over the edge to see how far down it was and make sure no one was standing there before climbing up and preparing to jump.

Antauri sensed something was about to happen and looked up and saw what it might be "Chiro! GET DOWN FROM THERE!"

Too late, the boy had already took the leap of faith and landed with a loud _thud_, one foot slightly in front of him, one foot beneath him. A sharp pain shot up his legs and he fell to his side.

Jinmay and the monkeys surrounded him, trying to see if he was alright. Gibson knelt beside him to check for injuries. "Chiro, are you alright?"

Chiro grit his teeth and tried to sit up "Ow… I think I hurt my feet,"

Minerva came over and examined his feet "Take off your shoe please. Where did it hurt most when you landed?"

Chiro did as asked and rubbed his foot "Right here,"

Minerva pressed on his heel with her thumb and pulled his foot so it straightened and flexed until the feeling in his foot started to go back to normal "Better?"

"Yeah, how did you do that?"

Minerva handed him his shoe and helped him up "Your feet are fine, you just hit a pressure point in your heel that set off a few nerve endings in your feet, it will go away in the other one soon,"

Chiro pulled on his shoe and hobbled over to a chair to sit down.

After a few more minutes of idle conversation the cookies cooled enough to be frosted which everyone helped with, getting it done faster.

After that task was complete and a few cookies were eaten, the team decided it was time for them to go. The sisters packed some cookies in a to-go box for them to have later and they all went out into the shop to hug a temporary goodbye.

When Raven got to hugging Chiro she whispered in his ear. "If you're really serious about that training, meet us here tomorrow at dawn and we'll work from there,"

Outside in the late afternoon sunshine the group started to make their way back to the Robot.

As they walked, Antauri walked close to Chiro. "Chiro, why did you jump off that railing?"

Chiro folded his arms behind his head and looked down "It looked so easy when they did it,"

Antauri took a deep breath and let it out in a sigh "Chiro, I don't want you training with them,"

Chiro looked over at him "Why not? You don't think I can do it either?"

Antauri levitated in front of him with that firm but caring look he always had when he talked to Chiro about something important. "I didn't say that. Please Chiro, just humor me on this one,"

Chiro glared at the ground before he relaxed and looked out the corner of his eyes "Okay, Antauri,"

Antauri looked at him like he was looking for something and then turned away "Come, let's go home,"

The two caught up to the others and went back to the Super Robot.

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The next morning, Chiro woke up to the sound of his alarm clock going off at five am, luckily it had a volume control he could turn down or the monkeys would have heard it.

He carefully climbed out of bed and got dressed before slipping out of his room and closing the door behind him as quietly as he could before creepy down the hall.

'_Well, if I'm going to train to be a ninja I had better start practicing,'_

He made it to his tube just fine but to avoid making any noise he couldn't use the lift so he deactivated the suction and shimmied down to the bottom before reactivating it again and leaving the Robot; Making sure he left a note in his room and the command center in case the monkeys woke up and wondered where he was.

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_5:45_ am

Antauri sat bolt upright in his bed, feeling something was off. Then he felt like he just got hit in the stomach and ran to the bathroom like he had been doing every morning.

When he made it back to his room he found Gibson was standing by his door talking to Mandarin holding a piece of paper.

"I found this taped to the wall in the main area when I was on my way back from the lab…"

"You're just now getting out of the lab? This is why I was trying to get a curfew in place way back when, no one got to bed at a decent time,"

"It's from Chiro, he snuck out to…"

Antauri appeared behind them "What do you mean Chiro snuck out?"

The two other monkeys turned and took notice of him, Gibson handed him the note that read

"_Monkey team_

_If you found this note it means I've probably snuck out. _

_I'm sorry for worrying you but I just wanted to see what ninjas do for training._

_If I'm not back by the time you wake up don't worry about me I'll be back soon._

_ Chiro"_

"He went to train with Raven, Minerva and Lily," Mandarin and Antauri looked at each other; they had a pretty good idea what might be in store for young Chiro.

"Oh shit," they both ran straight to the tubes while Gibson went about trying to wake the other monkeys up.

* * *

_**AN: Like I said before, all my OC's are in the story for a reason. Thanks to everyone that has been reading this and has been kind enough to review or add "Monkey Doodle" to their Alerts/Favorites Lists; Electric Chocolate Milk, AntauriSigma, UgunsGreka Fans, Night of StarClan, sunstar989, Kyuubi No Tenshi, cheesybeans, WinxPossible, Lorrie the Ninja Elf**_

Otto: *bounces by on his tail like Tigger, singing* _This is the song that never ends! It goes on and on my friends! Someone started singing it not knowing what it was, and they'll continue singing it forever just because, this is the song…_

Lady Q: He's still going?

The rest of the team, minus Gibson: *running after him* We're working on it!

Lady Q: How strong was that coffee?

Gibson: *demonic angry growls from another room* WHO. DRANK. MY. COFFEE!

Sprx: uh oh, THE BRITISH ARE COMING! THE BRITISH ARE COMING! *everyone hides*

Oh, boy. _**Comments, suggestions and predictions are welcome, but please no flames, I fear Gibson might roast Otto over them if he ever catches him.**_


	5. Chapter 5

Monkey Doodle

Chapter 5

_**Sorry this took so long, not only have I been busy with reality but when I did have a chance to write I was on a roll and couldn't find a good place to cut it off so I'm uploading in two parts at the same time to avoid leaving loose ends.**_

Rated T for language, violence, mentions of temporary character death (I say temporary death because if they die and come back again then the death is only temporary.)

I own nothing but my OC's please ask before using any part of them. "Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!" and all related characters and names belong to Ciro Nieli, Disney and ABC Family.

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The city of Shuggazoom was cold and dark with the grayish haze of the approaching dawn in the east.

A slight fog hung in the streets as Chiro ran through them to reach his destination, pulling his jacket around himself tighter to ward off the early morning chill.

The boy's lungs were already burning by the time the shop came into view so he stopped outside to catch his breath before going in. The door was locked so he peered through the glass on the door to see if he could see anyone.

"You know it's against the law to peek in people's windows like that,"

Chiro just at the sound of a voice behind him to see Lily was standing behind him wearing black yoga pants and a matching jacket that was half zipped over a red shirt with black running shoes.

He rubbed the back of his head and turned to face her "Hey, Lily, didn't see you there… since when is looking in windows illegal?"

Lily smiled and shook her head "It's only illegal if you are actually peeping on someone, since the shop is a public place I guess we can't have you convicted. Did you need something?"

Chiro straightened up "Raven said if I was serious about training I should come here this morning and we'd work from there,"

After a moment's hesitation, Lily took a step around the side of the building and nodded her head for him to follow.

They went around the back of the building where Raven and Minerva sat on the ground stretching. They were in the process of shifting positions so they had one leg tucked in and the other stretched out so they could lean over and touch their toes when the two came around the corner.

Minerva looked over at them through the corner of her eye "The kid actually came?"

Raven finished her stretch and sat up to look at him "Did you just come to watch or is that what you're going to be training in?"

Chiro noticed they were all wearing the same outfit, only their shirts beneath their jackets were different colors, while he was wearing the same outfit he always wore when he wasn't in his Hyperforce uniform. He mentioned this and offered to change into that but they denied that.

"No, we don't need you going 'boy hero' on us here we're just doing a simple workout today,"

Chiro looked confused "Really?"

Lily sat down and did her own stretches "Yeah, we alternate between regular training and actual ninjutsu practice so we don't do too much of one and neglect the other,"

Raven and Minerva both swung their other leg out so they were sitting in a full leg split on the ground "If you're going to train you might want to do some stretches so you don't hurt yourself,"

Chiro frowned but complied, he really hoped he would at least get to see some ninja training action.

After everyone was all stretched out they all stood and jogged around the side of the house, the girls each grabbed a small athletic backpack as they went.

"Okay, Chiro, just follow us. We're just going to jog up to the park and come back for some drills, alright,"

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The monkey team flew over the city in search of Chiro, they split up into groups in case the sisters left the shop to train somewhere else nearby.

Sprx and Nova searched the neighborhood next door where all the rooftops were flat, Gibson and Otto started at the shop and worked their way down town and Antauri and Mandarin searched the area between the shop and the park.

Mandarin noticed Antauri was becoming more and more frantic with every passing second and flew closer "I know you're worried, brother, but if you don't calm down your doing to give yourself a systems failure,"

Antauri gave him a look that made him unsure whether he should flinch away or give him a hug.

"I know it's just… Chiro's…" Antauri rubbed his temple, trying to not think too much of all the "worst case scenarios" running through his mind just then.

Mandarin raised an eyebrow "Antauri, what is it?"

Antauri sighed and looked over at him "Chiro has a mild case of asthma, we didn't realize it until we started getting more involved with his physical training when he had just joined the team. It isn't normally a problem; he just has trouble breathing when he runs or exercises sometimes. We know the signs enough to know when we need to back off when we train with him, but Raven and her sisters don't and if what I have heard about the sort of training they do is anything to go by they will just keep pushing him until he gives up or he falls apart,"

Mandarin's eyes widened, he hadn't been told this before, he thought the others were just soft on him when they interrupted the training sessions he had with him. "Does the boy know this?"

"About the asthma? It's such a mild case I think he just assumes he outgrew it to the point where he just runs out of breath easily. As for the training, He has no idea what he is getting himself into,"

The two activated their scanners so they had a better chance of spotting their quarry and used the Power Primate to try to sense him.

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Chiro jogged behind the girls, already struggling to breathe while they just kept up the brisk pace barely even winded. They slowed when they heard him huffing and wheezing behind them and looked back.

Minerva saw how pale and sweaty he was and his cheeks were slightly flushed, she stopped to wait for him. "You okay, kid?" the other two stopped a little ways away.

Chiro caught up to them and doubled over with his hands on his knees, gasping for air through his burning airways. "Ye-ah… *_cough* _I-I'm fine," he then went into a coughing fit, his throat seeming to swell slightly, and he fell to his knees trying to catch his breath.

The girls' eyes widened when realization hit them and Minerva helped him over to a bench where he could sit down.

Lily took off her little back pack and dug around inside it "Are you okay, Chiro? You need some water or something?"

"Lily, he's having trouble breathing I don't think giving him water is the best thing right now,"

Just then they heard a noise overhead, sounded like… rockets.

Somewhere above them, Mandarin and Antauri flew just below the roofs of the surrounding buildings looking for Chiro.

Antauri spotted him first, being led to a nearby bench by Minerva. '_Oh no,' _ "Mandarin, down there,"

Mandarin looked where he pointed and nodded, both of them dove down and landed close to the bench.

"Chiro!" Antauri was already running over to him before his feet fully touched the ground.

Minerva and Lily saw him and moved out of his way. "Antauri, we're so sorry, we were going easy on our training so he could keep up but he just started wheezing and coughing like he had trouble breathing,"

Antauri gently turned his boy's head so he was looking at him; his asthma was definitely acting up. "Chiro has a mild case of asthma that acts up once in a while. That's why he's having trouble breathing right now,"

Antauri reached into the compartment in his helmet and took out a small white and orange inhaler and shook it before he held it next to Chiro's mouth "Chiro, open your mouth, I know you think you've outgrown this but you need to take your medicine,"

Chiro took the inhaler and put it in his mouth before pressing the button that released a puff of the powdery substance inside and inhaled deeply. Once he was done he took the inhaler out and took deep breaths in and out until he could breathe normally again.

"Better?" Chiro nodded. Antauri and Mandarin both breathed a sigh of relief before the latter contacted the others to let them know where they were and the former regarded Chiro in a chiding tone. "Now do you see why I didn't want you training with them right away? Do you have any idea how worried we all were when we found out you just up and left at the crack of dawn without telling anyone?"

Chiro bowed his head "Sorry, Antauri,"

Mandarin closed off his comm. link "If you think you're sorry now, wait until Nova gets here,"

Raven stepped up "We're sorry too, we didn't know he had asthma or that no one knew where he was but we should have asked, sorry,"

Lily offered him some water again, he took the water bottle form her with a thankful smile and took a drink before handing it back to her. "How have you been able to train him if he has asthma?"

"We've been working with him in the training room on the Robot so we can adjust the climate control so it doesn't act up as much and we know the signs for when he's getting close to having a spasm enough to know when we should let up on him," Antauri sensed the others nearby. "The others are coming, brace yourself…"

"Chiro!" Nova zoomed up and pulled Chiro into a hug. "If you _ever _scare us like that again I'm going to…"

Sprx came up and gently tugged on her arm "Easy Nova, let the kid have some air,"

Nova pulled away and barely stopped herself from hitting Sprx when Gibson and Otto came dropping in on them.

Gibson stood in front of Chiro and checked his breathing and heart rate and asked him questions like "Was it as bad as it was when you were running all over the city before we got you your rocket pack(1)?"

Chiro shook his head, it wasn't as bad as it was then; he was such a mess that one time he actually got sick a few times on those flights of stairs, that was why Sprx took pity on him and offered to give him a lift back to the Robot.

Gibson finished checking him over. "Well, he should be fine for now. This was just one of those times where his respiratory system was more sensitive to asthmatic attacks than usual. We had best be getting home now," he looked over at the sisters "Unless you were going to continue with him?"

Minerva held up her hand "If he wants to go home, that's his choice. What right do we have to make him do something he doesn't want to do if he might not be able to do it?"

Chiro huffed defensively "I can do it,"

Raven got down on one knee and spoke to him like she was telling off a mouthy child "Chiro, after we got to the park we were going to run back to the shop and do drills, and by drills I mean 'killers', 'Blood-and-guts', …"

Otto scratched his head "Whoa, that sounds violent,"

Lily patted his head "Don't worry, they're running exercises,"

Otto looked up at her and smiled "Oh, okay,"

"… ladders and lots of other rigorous training exercises before a cool down stretch. We already made the mistake of taking your word for it when you said you can handle it and you barely lasted until the park. If you want to continue training with us we are going to have to find some common ground so you can keep up until you're caught up with the rest of us,"

Chiro glared at the ground so she sighed and gently hooked her finger under his chin and lifted his head so he was looking at her "Alright?"

Chiro nodded.

Raven released him and stood up, looking around "Well, now that that's settled I believe your team would like to take you home so I guess we'll be seeing you guys later,"

Chiro gave her a half-hearted smile. "Um, yeah… See ya,"

Minerva clapped him on the shoulder "Hey, you were doing great for a while so it wasn't a total waste, right?"

The three sisters waved goodbye before continuing their jog. Chiro waved back before turning to the monkeys, who were all watching him with their arms crossed and looks of disappointment on their faces.

Chiro bowed his head in shame. "I'm sorry guys. I didn't mean to worry you, I just…"

Antauri held up his hand "We know Chiro, we will finish this discussion later but for now let's all go home,"

The team all turned and launched themselves into the air to fly back, but Antauri noticed Chiro wasn't with them. A quick glance at the ground revealed the boy jogging below them to try to keep up. '_He doesn't have his rocket pack with him,'_

The silver monkey turned back and landed next to Chiro who gave him a thankful smile and the two walked home together.

On the way, Chiro looked down at the inhaler still in his hand and realized something "Hey, Antauri, how did you know I was going to need my inhaler when you guys found me? I haven't needed it for a long time,"

Antauri looked up at him "I didn't, the first time you had an attack after you joined us I asked Gibson to make a spare one in case it ever happened again and you didn't have yours. I have kept it with me ever since,"

Chiro looked at the inhaler, then at Antauri and back again. Now that he thought about it, it was slightly different than the one he had carried around as a kid—last he checked it was in his sock drawer now but he wasn't sure.

He handed it back to Antauri who put it back inside his helmet and the two walked home without another word.

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_Later that day_

"Blarrgh!" Once again, Antauri was hunched over in the bathroom releasing what little he had actually managed to eat that day into the toilet. '_Ugh, if this is called "Morning sickness" then why am I still doing this in THE MIDDLE OF THE DAY?' _he rested his head against the rim and let his eyes close, trying to will everything to stop spinning around him.

After a moment, he heard the door open and sensed someone had come in. "Antauri?"

Cursing himself for forgetting to lock the door, Antauri's eyes fluttered open and he slowly turned his head to see Nova looking down at him as she closed the door behind her.

Clearing his throat he slowly pushed himself to an upright position "I'm sorry, Nova, if you need to use the bathroom I'll be out in a…" he was interrupted by the golden monkey lunging forward and hugging him around the waist. "…Moment? What's wrong Nova?"

Nova buried her face into his chest "I'm sorry, this is all my fault,"

Hesitantly at first, Antauri wrapped his arms around his little sister and held her close. "What do you mean?"

Nova sniffled, determined not to cry in front of him "I was the one he was after, it should have been me that got captured. If it happened that way he wouldn't have gotten you, and you wouldn't be so sick and…"

"Shh," Antauri gently rubbed the back of her head until she calmed down a bit. Once she had he leaned back to look at her and spoke in a soft gentle tone "Nova, look at me,"

Biting her lip, she looked up into the kind and wise eyes of her older brother. "Nova, none of us had any way of knowing what that monster had planned and even if we did I would have never let him take you. I would do anything it takes to keep you and the others safe,"

His words struck a bittersweet note and she half smiled at him "Yeah, you kind of proved that already," They were quiet for a moment before they slowly pulled apart.

"Feeling better?"

"Yeah, kind of," Nova looked over at him as he realized he didn't flush his mess and reached over to do that. "What about you? How are you feeling?"

Antauri leaned back against the shower/bath tub set up they had. "Right now I feel like I have the flu and aside from the fact I know that's not what this is there really isn't that much difference yet,"

Nova was quiet for a moment like she wanted to say something so Antauri met her eyes and silently asked her to continue. "What are we going to do about Chiro?"

Antauri thought for a moment, wondering if they should include the others on this but he was second in command and she was third so they could pull rank. "We can't exactly ground him because we are going to need him if something happens in the city,"

Nova nodded "And it won't be much of a punishment if we just keep him here inside the Robot where he can play games or watch TV all the time,"

"Those can be turned off,"

"And what's keeping him from sneaking out again?" the she-monkey clenched her fist and smacked it into the wall. "I don't get it! Whenever we try to teach him something new or get him more involved in training he acts like he already knows it all, so why did he want to go behind our backs and train with them?"

Antauri looked to the side with a faraway look on his face. "Remember how he was when we first met him?"

Nova looked away with that same look. "Yeah, he was scared at first but then when he saw we weren't going to hurt him the first thing he said was 'This is so cool! Talking robot monkeys!' then you explained the situation and he was scared all over again but he loved to pretend he was a superhero,"

Antauri looked at her with a smile "You see, He was the same way when we first started out with him, but he was still a child then and now he's starting to act like a teenager,"

"So, now what?"

Antauri rubbed his face with his hand and sat up, remembering something "Have you heard anything from Master Offay recently?"

"Not really, why?"

Antauri smiled "Well, maybe when we eventually get to looking for the Dark One Worm perhaps we can stop by Goraxia for a visit,"

Nova looked at him like he was up to something "You going to make him train with Master Offay?"

"Chiro doesn't seem to be too keen with training with us; hopefully your old Master will be able to help us straighten out his discipline issues. And I'm sure you would like to see him again,"

Nova thought about it "Yeah it would be nice. Should we tell Chiro?"

"Not yet, at least wait until we leave Shuggazoom," Antauri pulled himself up and rinsed his mouth in the sink.

Nova leaned against the wall "The others are having lunch right now if you're up to it,"

Now that Antauri thought about it he _did _feel somewhat hungry; the strangest feeling in the world, to puke like crazy but still feel hungry for more. He just had to be careful it didn't come right back up as soon as he swallowed it. "Aren't you going?"

"I'll be down in a minute, but I kind of…" She flicked her finger in the direction of the toilet, giving a subtle hint.

Antauri caught on quick "Oh, right sorry," he walked out of the bathroom and closed the door behind him.

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In the Robot's kitchen area, most of the team was seated around the table eating the Hoverburgers Chiro had gotten for everyone earlier. The only exceptions to this were Gibson, who was eating his lunch in the lab while he observed the outcome of whatever experiment he was working on and Antauri, who wasn't eating a Hoverburger.

They all gave him weird looks when they realized what he _was_ eating. Chiro swallowed his bite of burger and cautiously asked "Uh, Antauri, Are you dipping carrot sticks in… pudding?"

Antauri put his head in his hand and held up the crunchy orange carrot covered in sweet mushy pudding like he wasn't quite sure what it was. "It would appear so,"

Sprx wrinkled his nose at it "Sounds gross,"

Antauri took another bite, chewed and swallowed "It's actually not that bad,"

"That sounds good. I wanna try it," Otto hopped out of his chair and went to get a pudding cup out of the pantry and flopped back into his seat.

Sparx mumbled behind his burger to make it look like he was chewing "Morning sickness, mood swings and weird cravings. Antauri's on a roll,"

Antauri ignored him and pushed the bowl of carrot sticks closer to Otto so they could both share. Otto took an exploratory bite and chewed "Hey, this is pretty good," then he took a bigger bite and chewed it with a pudding covered smile on his face.

Gibson came out of the labs "Hey, everyone, something just came up on our scanners," Then he saw the white stuff on Otto's face and cringed "Great Scott, Otto, what is on your face?"

"Puddin'," Otto mumbled around the mouthful he had.

Gibson held up his hands and shook his head in an "I don't want to know," fashion. "Ahem, like I said, something just came up on the Super Robot's scanners, Conclusive data suggest there is a good chance it could be Ma'lone,"

Everyone stopped eating. Some of them looked out the corner of their eyes at Antauri who sat up straighter. "Where is he at?"

Gibson led them into the control center and pointed up at the monitor. "According to these readings he is at the Pit of Doom,"

Chiro clenched his fist "Come on, we can pick up Jinmay on the way," then he struck his usual heroic pose "Monkeys Mobilize!"

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After they picked up Jinmay, having called her to meet them in the park, the team flew the Super Robot towards the Pit.

On the way, Jinmay went to stand next to Antauri who was meditating in the corner looking like he was on his way to an execution, whether he was the executioner or the person being executed was anyone's guess.

"Antauri, Are you okay?"

Antauri looked up at her, he already knew who it was but he wanted to show he was listening. "I'll be fine Jinmay. Thank you for asking,"

Jinmay didn't seem convinced "You sure? You know it's ok to be nervous,"

The silver monkey smiled at her "I know, but if I know Ma'lone he's going to try to play mind games. I can block him out but it becomes difficult if he's already inside my mind in the form of memories of the last time we met,"

Jinmay nodded. Antauri turned completely around to face her. "Speaking of nerves, how are you feeling about your first real fight?"

Jinmay folded her hands behind her back and looked to the side sheepishly. "Well, I know Nova's been working with me a lot and she's taught me so much, but what if I mess up? What if I fail you guys when you really need my help?"

Antauri smiled warmly at her "Chiro felt the same way right before his first battle,"

"Really?" Jinmay couldn't believe the cocky teen could be nervous about anything.

Antauri nodded "Of course, and his second one, and his third… As a matter of fact he still is sometimes, he just hides it really well by pretending he's one of those superheroes he sees on TV,"

Jinmay giggled so Antauri continued "My point is, just do your best, we'll be there to help you if you need it,"

Jinmay smiled and hugged Antauri "Thanks Antauri,"

"You're welcome," Antauri patted her on the back and she pulled away and went to stand next to Nova who was giving her some last minute pointers.

Mandarin was leaning against the wall nearby and levitated over to hover next to his brother "Giving Jinmay one of your famous pep talks?"

Antauri rolled his eyes in a childish way he could only be around the older monkey when they weren't in the middle of something important. "Why, Mandarin, do you need one?"

Mandarin smiled "Nope, I'm good. Are you?"

Antauri hesitated "…Yes,"

"Liar,"

Antauri looked at him quizzically "How can you tell if I'm lying or not? I don'tlie,"

Mandarin shook his head like his younger brother missed something obvious "You don't lie often but everyone lies once in a while and everyone has a 'tell' that gives them away. I just happen to know yours,"

"Okay then, what is it?"

Mandarin snorted "I can't tell you, you'll probably find a way to hide it or change it altogether if I do,"

Antauri saw how that made sense "Well then, what's yours?"

Mandarin thought about it "You know what, I actually don't know mine. Artemis does but she wouldn't tell me either. I know Gibson's, Chiro's, Nova's and Otto's, Sprx is a little trickier but I think I have his,"

"I already know theirs; Gibson's voice gets higher and more dramatic…"

"Like a British actress that's terrible at acting,"

"…Nova gets a guilty look on her face,"

"I know, and Otto sometimes forgets he's supposed to lie and then goes back to change his sentence,"

"And, as much as I hate to admit he even lies in the first place, Chiro's 'tell' is in his hands and eyes,"

Mandarin nodded "Yes, but what he does with them depends on the kind of lie,"

Antauri looked at him "A lie is a lie, Mandarin,"

"What I meant was…"

"WE HAVE A VISUAL!" everyone gathered in front of the console where Gibson was typing on the key pad to bring up a screen showing the Formless-simian scurrying about the scraggly brush and piles of rock. "It would seem our first assumption was correct. Curious, he seems to be searching for something,"

Nova pounded her fist into her hand "Well, if it's trouble he's looking for he's about to get a whole lot of it,"

Chiro directed everyone to their tubes. "Hyperforce Go!"

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Everyone exited the Robot out the hatch in its foot and cautiously stepped up to the Pit, peering over the edge to see if their target was at the bottom. Not seeing him they deduced that the only place left to hide was amidst the piles of rock and boulders scattered around the Pit from when it was being dug.

Chiro directed the others towards it "Split up and search, if anyone sees him let the rest of us know. Use caution team, he could be anywhere and we don't want to be caught by surprise again,"

The Chiro went one way, Jinmay went another and the monkeys fanned out in between, everyone made sure to keep at least one other team mate within sight—or at least within shouting distance—just in case.

Antauri was positioned between Nova and Jinmay, the others thought he chose this direction randomly but he actually sensed something and was intent on checking it out. He didn't realize he was straying further away from the others than he should have.

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Hidden in a small alcove formed by two slabs of rock leaning against each other, a dark figure sat in meditation, biding his time. He knew he would get what he was after eventually, regardless of who tried to stop him. It was only a matter of time before he found the ones he was after.

Suddenly he sensed another presence nearby. Listening intently, he heard voices.

"Anyone find him yet?"

"No,"

"Well, keep looking,"

"Guys if we yell back and forth like this he's going to hear us coming!"

"Whoops, sorry!"

The Formless-simian grinned. '_It would seem they have found me. That certainly saves me some trouble,'_

Ma'lone slowly stood and positioned himself by the opening, just inside the shadows and waited until he sensed his prey drawing near. He sensed eight life forms outside, two of which he intended to capture—or in the case of one recapture—the rest were of no consequence, he could dispose of them at his leisure once his prizes were secured.

After a moment he spotted a flash of silver and smiled as he lashed out and closed his claw hand around Antauri's neck and shoulder.

Antauri tried to pry himself free with his ghost claws. Ma'lone laughed at the feeble attempt to escape and tightened his grip until his captive cried out.

Savoring the brief scream, Ma'lone leaned close and whispered with sinister glee in Antauri's ear. "Hello, Antauri. I so hoped you would come back to me, my pet. We didn't get to finish what we started last we met,"

Antauri stiffened, horrible memories came flashing back but he pushed them to the furthest reaches of his mind and kept his features blank. "I am no one's pet,"

Mandarin slowly reached around with his free hand and caressed Antauri's midriff. "But what about the lovely little seed I have gifted you with? Hmm?"

Antauri glared straight ahead, being unable to glare at the Formless-simian that had positioned himself behind him. "If you are referring to what you tried to do in the labs, it didn't work,"

Ma'lone tensed up like he was going to lose his infamous temper with Antauri, then he smiled. Antauri could almost hear the wicked grin splitting the face that was positioned right by his ear as Ma'lone laughed darkly; if the silver monkey had fur anymore it would be standing on end. "Well, it wouldn't hurt to try again, would it?"

Antauri went still for a moment, and then he started shaking. Ma'lone cackled manically and crooned mockingly. "Ah, what's wrong, Antauri? Going to cry?"

What Ma'lone didn't see was that Antauri's little white pupils had become a single green dot in the middle of his eyes. Nor did he pay attention to the energy crackling around his ghost claws which had come to hang by his sides.

Slowly, the crackling energy around his claws became an energy sickle in each hand, one of which he stabbed into the hinge of the pincer clamped around him, causing it's wielder to screech and release his grip instinctively.

As soon as he was free, Antauri turned and launched the other sickle at him before using another powerful attack.

"MONKEY MIND SCREAM!" the psychic sound waves forced the clone backwards into a nearby boulder. Only it wasn't a real boulder, if the metallic _clang_ was anything to go by.

Ma'lone sat up rubbing his head and turned his attention to what he just crashed into. "Hello, what's this?" he reached out and felt along the sides of the structure until he found a spot where it gave in. Upon pressing it, the rock surface broke apart, revealing a small compartment that vaguely resembled a ship's cock pit.

"Huh, I was wondering where this went," Before Antauri could stop him, Ma'lone climbed inside and activated the hidden thrusters on the end and took off.

That's when Antauri recognized the craft; it was a piece of the Citadel of Bone. Ma'lone had somehow been able to get it to work like a ship. Antauri watched as it slowly picked up altitude until he realized what the clone could possibly need it for; going after Skeleton King.

"NO!" The others arrived just then, having heard the fighting. "Ma'lone has gotten a hold of a small ship and is heading into Shuggazoom's atmosphere. We are going to need the Super Robot to catch him now,"

Chiro pointed back the way they had come. "Okay, everyone head back to the Robot, we'll run him down and put a stop to him once and for all,"

They all ran to the Robot, Antauri got to the hatch in the Robot's foot just as Sprx and Gibson did. The two had crashed into each other in an attempt to get in before the other and Antauri jumped over the pile up they formed to keep from trampling them before he helped them up and ushered them in so he could hold the door for Chiro, who was the last one to get back, and close it behind them.

As the two of them ran to their tubes to get up to the command center, Chiro saw the dents and scratches that wrapped around Antauri like a sash and grew concerned. "Antauri, what happened?"

Antauri touched the spot where the claw had been around him and shrugged it off. "Ma'lone used his pincer claw on my shoulder. Don't worry, I'll be fine,"

Once everyone got up to the command center, Chiro immediately gave the order for everyone to get to their battle stations. Since Jinmay didn't have an actual battle station she went up Chiro's orange tube to ride in Torso Tank 1 with him.

Antauri went over to his tube to go up into Brain Scrambler 2 but Mandarin grabbed his arm to stop him. "Oh no you don't, remember what Gibson said about you getting involved in fighting?"

Antauri looked at him "Mandarin, let go of my arm. I'm not actually fighting and I'm needed in Brain Scrambler 2,"

Mandarin looked like he was about to cave but then he saw the claw marks on Antauri's body and gingerly ran his fingers through the grooves. "By Shuggazoom…"

Antauri huffed "It's just my shoulder, Mandarin. I've had worse,"

Mandarin sighed, he knew he wasn't going to get Antauri to give up on this, he was going to have to try a different form of reason; compromise. "At least let me be up there with you, that way if you need help I'm right there,"

Antauri thought about it "Deal," then he went up the tube first to get set up with the others.

"Foot Crusher Cruiser 6, GO!"

"Foot Crusher Cruiser 5, GO!"

"Fist Rocket 4, GO!"

"Fist Rocket 3, GO!"

"Brain Scrambler Pilot 2, GO!"

"Torso Tank 1, GO!"

Mandarin made it up to the Brain Scrambler just in time to help with the team sound off. "Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!"

The Super Robot launched into the air and rocketed after the asteroid ship into the upper atmosphere and right into open space.

As soon as they cleared the stratosphere they were able to pick up the asteroid's signal on their scanners. "There he is,"

"Let's get him!" Nova gunned the Robot's foot thrusters and sent them rocketing forward.

Up in the Brain Scrambler, Mandarin was getting antsy. "You sure you're up for this?"

"Yes, Mandarin, I'm sure,"

Mandarin held up his hands in surrender "Okay," he grabbed onto the metal bar he had been hanging on to so he didn't get knocked down when they increased speed and tapped his foot on the floor. "You sure you don't want me to pilot?"

Knowing his brother meant well and trying to be patient with him, Antauri looked over his shoulder at him "Don't worry, I've done this many times,"

Seeing his brother was looking at him and not at the visual monitor Mandarin pointed at the screen. "Hey, don't look at me, pay attention to what you're doing,"

Yes, Mandarin meant well, but even Antauri's legendary patience was starting to wear thin. "Mandarin, please, I agreed to have you in the cock pit to give us both some peace of mind and in case something did happen. That does _not _mean you get to back seat drive the whole time,"

"I'm not back seat driving, I'm just giving you some friendly advice that you refuse to take,"

He glared at the screen and answered calmly. "How can it be _friendly_ advice if you keep yelling at me?"

"I'M NOT YELLING!"

Antauri, calm as always "Yes you are,"

"No I'm not,"

Sprx rolled his eyes "Sheesh, you two fight like an old married couple,"

Mandarin glared at the Sprx's little corner of the screen that showed all the team members in their stations. "Stay out of this Sprx,"

Antauri took advantage of the temporary distraction to concentrate on his piloting while adding off handedly "It's not that much different than with yours and Gibson's disagreements,"

Sprx looked over at Gibson's part of the screen and the blue monkey looked back. "We're not that bad are we?"

"YES!" the whole team yelled.

Sprx and Gibson flinched away from the speakers. "Sorry I asked,"

They closed in on Ma'lone's asteroid and directed all of their targeting systems on it, preparing to fire.

Chiro held his thumb over the button that triggered the Lasertron Fury but hesitated. "Hey, Antauri, you want to take the first shot?"

"Certainly, Firing Antenna Blast!" Antauri pressed the button and blue lightning shot from the Super Robot's antenna to graze across the back of the asteroid ship, causing it to spin out of control and careen towards Ranger 7, most likely for a crash landing.

"Alright we got him!" Sprx shouted.

Nova wasn't so convinced it was over. "Is he really gone?"

Antauri crossed his arms "I don't think so, he has survived worse before,"

Gibson checked the scanners "Even if he did with that amount of damage to his vessel it would take at least several days to repair, if repairs were even possible. And judging by the trajectory he would have landed rather close to the Ranger 7's prison station,"

Chiro sat back in his seat "Well, either way he's taken care of for now. Monkey team, let's go home,"

They turned the Super Robot around and flew back to Shuggazoom city and landed in their usual spot near the park.

As soon as they touched down, Antauri suddenly felt exhausted. Undoing his seat belt, he fell forward, Mandarin caught him before he had fallen.

"Antauri, are you alright?"

Antauri rubbed his eyes "I'll be fine, I just felt tired all of the sudden,"

The orange monkey pulled his brother's arm around him and helped him over to the tube and rode down with him, Antauri slipped into a light doze at some point between there and the bottom.

Everyone stepped out of the tubes into the command center, the others were a little worried when they saw Mandarin step out of Antauri's tube pulling the silver monkey with him.

They rushed over asking if he was okay but Mandarin shushed them "Shh, he's asleep," he scooped his brother up bridal style and carried him over to the couch in the main area to lay him down on it. "He fell asleep on the way down the tube,"

Antauri jolted when he was placed on the couch, Otto put a hand on his shoulder "It's okay, Antauri, you're safe,"

Chiro clenched his fist "No one is safe from Skeleton King. As long as he's out there terrorizing the cosmos, we have to do something about it,"

"Then why don't we?" they all looked down at Antauri, who had just woken up and was trying to sit up with Otto and Mandarin still holding him down.

The two slowly helped him up "You okay now?"

Antauri nodded "I'm fine, just dozed off for a moment there," He sat up and Otto and Mandarin sat on the couch next to him while everyone else found a place to sit.

"Okay, from what we know Ma'lone is stranded on Ranger 7 so we can pick him off when we leave Shuggazoom to go after the Worm,"

Jinmay crossed her arms "Sure is going to be different without you guys. I miss you already,"

Chiro put his arm around her "It's ok, Jinmay, we'll be back before you know it,"

Nova held up the book she had borrowed from Heart-to-Hearth. "Yeah, and if you need any help you can ask Raven, Minerva or Lily,"

Chiro crossed his arms, pouting "Oh, sure, Jinmay gets to train with them,"

Nova gently—for her anyway—bopped him on the head with the book, causing him to cover his head and cower like any sensible person would do. "_Jinmay_ doesn't sneak out at the ass-crack of dawn so she can train with them after being told not to,"

"Language, Nova," Gibson took the book away from her "But she's right, Antauri said he didn't want you training with them _right away_ and we all agreed with him. We might have reconsidered later if we were sure you would be able to handle their training as well as adhering to your duties with the team,"

Chiro rubbed the back of his head "I guess I should have been more patient then, huh?"

Mandarin threw his arms up "Well, what do you know? The boy actually does know what that word means!"

"Well, I guess we had better go talk to them then," Antauri started to stand up but Mandarin pulled him back down.

"Antauri, if you're really tired maybe you should stay here and rest,"

Gibson got up and went to back Mandarin up "Mandarin is right, Antauri. Maybe you should…"

Antauri reached out with his ghost claws and pinched a pressure point between the blue monkey's neck and shoulder.

Gibson wheezed as he tried to stay upright "Okay, you can come," Antauri released him immediately.

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"You're leaving?"

They had just explained the situation to the sisters, Raven was waiting until they got more info before she judged and the kicked-puppy look on Lily's face was almost too much to bear. Minerva looked slightly troubled. "Lily's right, why the sudden get-up-and-go?"

Chiro looked guilty "Sorry, but the Skeleton King Worm is still out there and we need to stop him,"

Raven nodded "We understand. You got a job to do. But who's going to look after the city while you're gone? This place doesn't actually stay 'saved' for long,"

"My sentiments exactly," Antauri mumbled with crossed arms.

Chiro continued "We know. That's why we're going to have Jinmay be the city's protector while we're gone. Though I kind of feel bad for leaving her here with such a big job by herself,"

Raven put a hand on Jinmay's shoulder "You're not by yourself, you got us,"

Jinmay smiled at them "Thanks,"

Gibson but in "Do you three know anything about defending a city?"

Sprx shrugged "See a monster causing trouble, beat the monkey doodle out of it. What's to know?"

Minerva held up a hand "Actually, there hasn't really been much monster activity since the Worm left and back when there was, while you guys took care of that sort of thing we took care of regular crimes like break ins, muggings, robberies,"

"Basically we were Spiderman without the spider powers,"

Chiro looked like he was about to go all fan-boy like he did when they met the Sun Riders "That's awesome. Do you guys have cool costumes too?"

"Does this look cool enough for you?" They all looked behind them and saw a girl dressed in a black suit with dark pink symbols on it with a matching mask and a katana strapped to her back. She was twirling a throwing knife between her fingers.

"Whoa, Lily, I almost didn't recognize you. How did you change so fast?"

Lily's eyes crinkled with a smile "An old ninja trick,"

Raven and Minerva pulled out their own masks and put them on. "We usually only wear those on our nightly patrol. It's kind of hard for us to 'blend in like ninja' in a busy city in the middle of the day dressed like that,"

"So it's settled then, you four stay and protect the city while we go after the Worm?"

"Agreed,"

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Later that day, the team gathered on the top of the Super Robot, everyone in the city had gathered on the ground below them.

Being the only one the humans would listen to, Chiro shouted out above the crowd. "Citizens of Shuggazoom! The city is safe but Skeleton King is still out there, spreading his evil across the galaxy. But don't worry, your Hyperforce team will put a stop to him and any who follows his evil ways once and for all,"

Chiro paused while the crowd cheered and waited for them to settle down "In our absence, we leave you with four protectors, one of them is named Jinmay," He gestured to Jinmay who stepped forward in her own Hyperforce uniform, it was similar to Chiro's only hers was more feminine with a skirt instead of pants.

He gestured over to Raven, Minerva and Lily, who were in their ninja garb. "The other three wish to remain anonymous in name and will be referred to as Mystic Kunoich,"

More cheers erupted form the crowd.

Chiro smiled over at Jinmay "You know, you make that outfit look pretty good,"

Jinmay smiled back, "Thank you, Chiro. Just promise me one thing,"

"What's that?"

Jinmay leaned over and kissed him on the cheek, inciting cheers and "ooh"s from the crowd "You'll come back to me," she activated her thrusters and flew down to the ground.

Lily and Raven hugged everyone on the team, wishing them the best of luck and a safe journey.

Minerva and Gibson faced each other, an awkward silence hung between them, broken by Minerva "So uh, guess this is it,"

"Indeed," Gibson took a deep breath, trying to find the will to say what was on his mind. "Minerva, I… you… well, that is to say…"

Minerva face palmed "…screw it…" she folded the lower part of her mask back, grabbed the blue simian and held him close. Gibson automatically wrapped his arms around her, and the two kissed passionately, drawing more "Ooh" sounds from the crowd.

Minerva pulled away "If you don't come back I'm coming after you,"

Gibson nodded "Yes ma'am," they kissed again and Gibson spoke again when they came up for air. "If you're not here when I get back I'll just leave again,"

"Yes sir," they held each other close, neither wanting to let go so Sprx grabbed Gibson by the tail and pulled him back.

"Come on, lover boy, you're staying with us,"

When Sprx pulled Gibson's tail he whirled around to snap at his brother while Minerva fell back with a happy sigh… and panicked when he saw she had fallen off the side of the Robot.

"OH MY GOD, MINERVA!" Gibson ran to the edge in a state of panic, eyes darting about frantically, finding the girl had gotten into a meditative position and levitated back up to his level.

They all gave a sigh of relief. "Well, that works,"

Minerva blew Gibson a kiss, he smiled and made a motion to "catch" it and hold it close to his heart before returning the gesture. Minerva caught it and held her hands over her own heart as she descended to the ground and ducked into a nearby alley way.

Lily stepped to the edge "Well, I guess that's our cue, take care of each other out there,"

"You too,"

Raven leaned down to whisper in Gibson's ear "If you hurt our sister, we hurt you,understood?"

Gibson nodded "I swear I would never intentionally do anything to harm her, you won't have anything to worry about from me,"

The two sisters smiled and slid down the Robot's arm and descended to the ground like their sister had and did their own "disappearing act".

Chiro looked at his team "Well, I guess it's time to go now," They all nodded and stepped through the hatch in the Robot's neck.

Otto stopped to wave at the people below "Bye Shuggazoom, We'll be back soon!"

Once they were all inside the team went to the command center and strapped themselves in.

Sprx had his hands on the main controls, being a pilot and all. "So, where we headed first?"

Gibson brought up a map and the Super Robot's stats on his holo-screen. "Right now our first objective would be to refuel so we don't run out somewhere in the middle of open space,"

"So, Ranger 7?"

"Yes,"

Mandarin winced at the mention of that name from where he was strapped to an extra seat by the monitors.

Chiro saw this "You okay, Mandarin?"

Mandarin looked over at the boy for a moment and nodded "Yes, I'll be fine," changing the subject he addressed the others "I suggest if anyone has to use the rest room you had better go now or you'll just have to hold it until we get there," he got a devious smile on his face before he added "Even if it's in your hand,"

After few "Eww"s and waiting for Otto after he realized that he _did _have to go, they blasted off and flew straight out of Shuggazoom's atmosphere.

* * *

_**1. In the episode "Pit of Doom" when he's running all over the place he starts breathing really hard and the fact that Chiro has asthma isn't mentioned directly in the show but it is a recurring theme in fanfiction and he does show signs of it sometimes in the show.**_

_**Many thanks for the people that have read this and reviewed; AntauriSigma, cheesybeans, kitkatkathy27121993, Lorrie the Ninja Elf,**_


	6. Chapter 6

Monkey Doodle

Chapter 6

Rated T for language, descriptive flashback of an Armageddon evacuation and anything else I might have missed.

_**Holy Monkey Doodle (No title drop intended.) Two in one day, I must be on a roll… or I just let the other one get too long and couldn't find a good place to stop so I'm putting both parts up at the same time. **_

* * *

The team landed the Super Robot on Ranger 7 and got out the mining equipment.

"Alright team, this could be the last chance to get fuel for the Robot for a while so we'd better get moving," Chiro and Nova each pushed the two carts they were going to use to haul the rocks in while Gibson and Otto scouted ahead to find a spot where the rock was richest in the types of minerals they needed to convert into fuel. Sparx walked between Chiro and Nova with his arms folded behind his head.

Antauri noticed Mandarin looking forlornly at the pink rocky landscape of Ranger 7. "Mandarin, Are you alright?"

Mandarin snapped out of his brooding to look at his brother "Yeah, It's just…" he sighed and looked back out again "This was the last place I saw them. Do I dare hope they're still here? Still…" he let his sentence trail off and hung his head.

Antauri put a hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry, we'll find them," Mandarin gave the silver monkey a small smile before the two went to catch up with the others.

Once they located a good spot to start digging they checked the area to make sure there was nothing else there—they really didn't want a repeat of the "Thingy" incident.

After an hour of digging, they all got that creepy-crawly feeling shivering down their spines.

Nova stopped breaking rocks apart with her fists and looked around. "Uh, guys… anyone else get the feeling we're being watched?"

They all stopped what they were doing and looked around, Antauri used the Power Primate to try to detect any life readings nearby "I too sense we are not alone," he looked right at an outcropping above them, where he saw a shadow move.

Mandarin looked up and saw it too "Up there," he scrambled up the rock face in pursuit with the others not far behind.

"Hey Mandarin, wait up!"

They all chased the unseen figure into a canyon, barely able to keep them in sight with all the sharp twists and turns.

Eventually, they ducked into a small cave. Mandarin was about to go in after them but Antauri grabbed him by the shoulder and held him back "Mandarin, wait, we don't know what we are dealing with,"

Mandarin turned to him and was about to retort when Nova blew past them and practically dove into the cave "Get back here!"

"Nova!"

Mandarin shook his head, bemused "Should have held her back instead," the others gathered outside the opening, since it was a small cave it would only take a few minutes for the golden warrior to flush their quarry out. They weren't concerned, until they heard a sharp crack and saw eerie flashes of light inside the cave accompanied by the sounds of struggle.

They all held their weapons at the ready when someone came out and stood there in shock when out of the cave came a female monkey, but it wasn't Nova. This female was lavender with black accents and gray eyes. Clinging to her back was a little girl monkey that looked barely over a year old who was orange with dark eyes and her mother's black accents.

Gibson was the first one to recover enough to speak. "What? Who are they? Where did they come from?"

"ARTEMIS! ECLIPSE!" Mandarin rushed over to embrace them.

The little girl monkey's head snapped up and looked around until she saw Mandarin. "DADDY!" she squealed happily and held her little arm out to him to wrap around his neck when he got close enough. The three of them shared a family hug, both parents tearing up while their daughter babbled excitedly and Mandarin alternated between kissing Eclipse on the head and kissing Artemis on the lips as if he thought they were both going to disappear.

Chiro and the other monkeys stood off to the side during this little reunion. After a few minutes Antauri levitated off the ground and cleared his throat, subtly reminding Mandarin they were still there.

"Hmm, oh right. Artemis, these are my brothers, Antauri, Gibson, Sparx and Otto, my sister Nova and the newest addition to our crazy little family Chiro,"

They all stood in a row to introduce themselves properly. Nova went first "Hi, I'm Nova. Sure is nice to know I'm not the only girl monkey in existence,"

Artemis smiled "Hon, there used to be an entire planet of Technosimians, you're not alone,"

Eclipse clung tighter to her mother, staring wide eyed at all the strangers in front of her. Nova smiled and leaned forward to get closer to her level "Hey, there, I'm your auntie Nova,"

The tiny orange female looked at the new yellow female. "You Auntie Nova?" Nova nodded. Eclipsed smiled shyly "Daddy wight, you are pwetty,"

Nova laughed "Oh, aren't you sweet,"

Otto went next, he bounced right up and leaned over Eclipse "Hi, Eclipse, I'm your Uncle Otto,"

Eclipse sank into her mother's back again with a quiet "Hi,"

Otto crooned "Ah, someone's shy. Don't worry, I won't bite,"

Artemis reached back and rubbed her daughter's head "Sorry, she really is shy. You six are the first beings she has ever seen up close, besides myself, Mandarin and my team, that haven't tried to do anything stupid, like put us in a zoo or kill us,"

Chiro looked at them with sympathy "That's awful,"

Eclipse saw Chiro and screamed, trying to hide completely behind Artemis, who reached around to pull her up front so she could rock her in her arms "And Chiro is the first thing that isn't a monkey that she has seen this close at all,"

"Oh right sorry," Chiro knelt down to make himself look smaller "Hey, fuzz ball…" Artemis hissed at him, cradling her daughter protectively. "What?"

Nova whispered to him "Chiro, how many times do we have to tell you 'fuzz ball' is an insult. It's like calling a human 'shorty' or something,"

"Oh, hehe sorry," he cleared his throat and tried again "Hey, Eclipse, I'm not going to hurt you. My name's Chiro, I'm a friend of your dad,"

Slowly, the little sherbet-colored simian calmed down so her mother swung her back around so she could climb back to her spot on her back.

Sprx introduced himself next "Hey squirt, the name's S-P-R-X-7-7, but call me Sparx,"

Eclipse frowned at him "Don' call me squirt,"

Completely teasing, he crossed his arms and leaned in close "Or what?"

Eclipse balled up her tiny little fist and bopped him on the nose.

"Ouch," Sprx fell back with his hands over his muzzle. "Yeah, she's definitely your kid, Mandarin,"

Artemis grabbed her fist and pulled it back "No, sweetie, no hitting,"

Gibson went next "I apologize for Sparx's behavior, what he lacks in social skills he makes up for in brash attitude. I am Mr. Hal Gibson, please don't call me Mr. or Hal, just…'

"Just Gibson, I know. We intercepted your broadcast to Shuggazoom about the Skeleton King threat,"

"So you know he is still out there?"

Artemis turned to Antauri "I'm sorry, I don't recall Mandarin telling me about you,"

Antauri bowed "I am Antauri, I'm surprised he hasn't told you about me,"

Artemis' eyes widened in recognition "Oh, _you're_ Antauri," she turned to Mandarin "I thought you said Antauri was a black monkey?'

"He was… but things tend to change,"

Artemis knew there was something more to what he was saying but didn't press it and turned to the group "So what brings you all way out here?"

"We were stopping to get some fuel for the Super Robot before we take to the stars to hunt down the Dark One Worm, and while we were at it we were hoping to get rid of Mal'one,"

"Ma'lone?"

Mandarin put his arm around his mate. "My evil clone,"

Artemis shot him a look "You mean to tell me that monster is _here_?"

They all nodded solemnly. After a moments debate, Artemis adjusted Eclipse's hold on her and scrambled up the embankment. Halfway up she turned back to the others and tossed her head over her shoulder "Come,"

Mandarin went up after her and stopped to wait for the others. "Are you coming or are you going to wait for someone to call you a cab?"

Otto grinned, completely missing his brother's joke. "I didn't know they had cabs up here,"

Chiro flagged him back down so Mandarin hooked his tail on a hand hold and hung upside down to talk to him "How do we know we can trust her?"

Mandarin frowned "I understand why you wouldn't trust me, Chiro, but my mate has done nothing to you and therefore does not deserve such mistrust without due cause," he swung back up and continued climbing. The others saw his point and followed.

Artemis led them up the ridge and through another canyon before they came to a small valley where they saw what appeared to be a crashed space cruiser.

The group followed her to the apparent wreckage; Sprx and Otto looked at the vessel zealously. "Whoa, that thing must have been really something when it worked,"

Artemis looked over at them "It still does, we just learned to disguise it as a ship wreck when we weren't planning on going anywhere for a while to avoid attracting unwanted attention,"

Antauri nodded appreciatively "Clever,"

As they approached the small disguised ship they heard someone hammering something.

"What's that noise?"

Mandarin traced the sound to a small makeshift shelter built off the sides of the valley wall. "Forge must be working on something again,"

Artemis sighed "Yes, he has been working obsessively on some project of his for a few days now. I told him to take a break but I don't think he took me seriously,"

"Forge?"

Mandarin looked up at Chiro "One of Artemis team, and the only 'brother' in the group,"

Nova looked over at the little hut. "He's the only boy on his team, I'm the only girl on ours. I'll bet we'd get along great,"

Artemis smiled at her "You can go say hello if you like, just knock on the metal pan we hung by the door before you go in. Last time someone just walked in and surprised him it didn't end well,"

"Is he grouchy or something?"

Artemis shook her head "No, he just doesn't like being snuck up on and tends to react before he thinks when he's interrupted when he's 'in the zone' as he refers to it,"

"Hey, he really does sound like Nova," Sprx teased and got smacked across the head for his efforts as Nova walked away followed by Otto who wanted to see what this strange new monkey was working on. Sprx rubbed his head and followed, grumbling.

Artemis shepherded the others to the side of the ship and reached through a pile of dirt that covered it, which rippled to reveal it was actually a hologram and opened a hatch in the side. "Well, come in, come in. I think Dyna is around here somewhere. I'll see if I can find her," they all entered through the hatch and into an air lock which lead to a foyer between the bridge and the back half of the ship. Seeing no one on the bridge, Artemis started to go into one of the small doors at towards the back when Mandarin yelled "Hey, Dyna, are you here?"

A red female simian with green eyes and gray accents came out and screamed when she saw Mandarin. Dyna ran up and hugged him "Mandarin you jerk, we thought you were dead! Where were you?"

Mandarin smiled and scratched behind her ears "It's a long story…"

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_In the forge_

Nova, Sparx and Otto made it to the door of the small hut and were greeted by the smell of something burning.

Leaning into the doorway and peering into the shadows inside, they could make out a work bench on one side and a fire pit filled with smoldering moon rock towards the back next to an anvil. Someone was at the anvil hammering a glowing hot piece of metal into shape with strong deliberate blows of their large hammer while working the large billows set in the side of the pit with their tail at the same time with practiced ease.

Nova located the metal pan that was nailed to the door frame and rapped on it twice, emitting small clangs from her metal knuckles.

The smith's hammer stopped mid-swing and he turned to look at them with piercing gold eyes for a moment before slowly lowering the hammer and speaking.

"Hello, and who might you be?" his voice was a rich baritone that sounded almost like a church bell.

Nova, being the one with better people skills, made the introductions. "I'm Nova and these two are Sprx and Otto, we're Mandarin's brothers and sister,"

The smith smiled and set his project on the edge of the pit to keep it warm before he transformed his hammer into his hand and extended it toward them as he stepped forward. "Oh, you're Mandarin's siblings, nice to finally meet you. The name's Forge,"

Nova was intrigued by this new monkey; he was gunmetal gray with blue accents, he was also a few inches taller than them and his arms were slightly thicker than Chiro's.

He shook each of their hands and his look softened "Have you heard anything from him recently?"

Sprx pretended to think about it before replying sarcastically "You mean besides a few minutes ago when he told us you were out here? Nope, nothing,"

Forge looked over at Sprx for a moment, as if thinking very intently about something, then he looked surprised "You mean Mandarin is really _back_?" they heard a sizzling sound behind them and saw his project had slid further into the fire than it should have.

"Oh no!" Forge ran to the back of the hut to pull the metal out of the forge but he accidently dropped the tongs behind the pit. Seeing as the tongs weren't an option, he just decided to do something really stupid; he reached right into the fire with his metal hand to fish out the glowing hot piece of metal and set it on the anvil.

His actions catching up to his brain, Forge looked down at his singed hand, parts of his fingers and a few spots on his palm glowing red and crackling from the heat. Breathe coming in gasps through grit teeth, he leaned against the water barrel he had in the corner.

The three monkeys watching sprang into action, Otto and Sparx ran around wildly for something to take care of the burns with, Nova went right over to Forge to try to get him to put his hand in the water but he shook his head. "No, not yet… If I cool it too fast it could fracture the metal of my hand, I need to wait a moment before I can put it in the water,"

Otto found a First Aid kit on the wall and pulled it down, accidently knocking over some jars of colorful powder.

Forge saw this and made a harsh hissing sound like he wanted to curse. "Drat, Watch where you step," He went to clean up the mess but Sprx stopped him.

"Whoa there buddy, you just burned your hand. We'll deal with the mess,"

In between Forge's unspoken protests and Otto repeatedly apologizing Nova lead the gray monkey over to a bench by his work table. "Don't worry, we'll take care of it,"

Forge slowly stood up, passively resisting her help with a polite nod and smile, and went to crouch next to where the boys were trying to sweep the different colors into different piles. "Careful, that's glass on the floor,"

Sprx rolled his eyes "No really? We were so busy trying to sweep up this powder stuff we didn't realize that,"

Forge gave him a look one would give a child that kept asking questions. "That's what the powder stuff is, Sprx. Powdered glass,"

They looked at Forge, who was trying to sift it with his good hand while the other rested on his thigh, then to the brightly colored powder and back again. "Why do you have powdered glass?"

Forge checked on his hand and decided it was stable enough to cool and stood up to slowly dip it in the water, wincing when the cold of the water made an angry sizzle when in contact with his arm. The others winced in sympathy when he slowly pulled it out again and patted it dry with a rag. "I use it for some of my projects,"

Otto perked up, curious "What kind of projects?"

Forge wrapped the rag around his hand and went over to his work bench where a wide variety of items hung on hooks set in the wall; several tools and a few finished projects such as pieces of armor, a few hand held weapons and some more ornamental pieces.

Forge explained to them while he looked through the assortment. "Glass is made when anything that isn't crystalline is fused together by extreme heat. It can also be melted down by extreme heat. By adding different colored powdered glass to molten metal, a smith can temper the metal into different tints of color. For example…"

He pulled down a helmet that was composed of plain steel but the top part seemed to be molded to the shape of their own helmets. "This piece here is forged from metal alloy we had gotten from a wreck we found floating through space, while this one…"

He pulled down a gauntlet that seemed to have a dark blue tint to it. "… had traces of that dark blue added to it while the metal was cooling, the heat of the metal melted the glass into the slag to give it more of a blue color. And this little beauty…"

He took down a dagger and pulled it out of its casing to reveal a blade the color of a robin's egg. "had a mixture of that same blue as well as a lighter shade of blue, some green and some purple added to it,"

Nova eyed the blade "It's beautiful,"

Forge cradled the knife in his hand and smiled down at it like a picture of a loved one before turning it in his hand to gesture to the other two pieces. "All of these were made by the same metal from the same source, the only difference would be what was added to them and what they were made into,"

Shaking his head and placing everything back where it was. "But enough about me and my work, what about you?"

Otto piped up "I'm Otto, I'm the one that builds stuff and makes gadgets for everybody,"

Forge smiled "You and Dyna would get along quite well then," He looked over at Sprx. "And you?"

Sprx smirked "I'm the team's main pilot, and the awesome one in the family,"

Forge mimicked his smirk "I'll bet you are," he turned to Nova and suddenly looked worried he'd offended her somehow "I'm sorry, I should have asked you first,"

Nova looked at him and put her hands on her hips "Why, because I'm a girl?" the look on her face and her body language usually made people stutter a quick apology in an attempt to save face before she smashed theirs in.

Forge just looked apologetic and answered politely "A gentleman always lets the lady go first,"

Nova relaxed her posture, unsure how to respond; no one really treated her like a lady for as long as she could remember and she wasn't sure if she liked it or not.

Forge clasped his hands together "Speaking of ladies, I'm guessing since you all found this place Artemis probably lead you here, yes?" they nodded "Well, they'll probably be wondering where we are so how about we go see what they're…" He winced and looked at his hand.

"I'd better finish wrapping this first… crazy sister might weld me to a wall in the ship's med. bay if she sees I hurt myself again," he grabbed the first aid kit and opened it up, taking out a bottle of salve and some gauze to dress his hand with.

While he did that, Otto swept the powdered glass into some small bowls he had found "Uh, sorry about the glass, I think we got it all cleaned up. It might be mixed together though,"

"Don't worry about it, I'll take care of it later,"

Once they had everything cleaned up, Forge covered the coals in the pit with the ashes that were in there to douse it before they walked outside and up to the hatch in the side of the ship.

They all crowded into the air lock so Forge could close the outer doors behind them and open the inner doors once the chamber pressurized. "Artemis, you left the door open again,"

They all heard her call from the bridge. "I know, I figured you would be in shortly and left the outer doors unlocked,"

The four of them joined the others on the bridge, Forge crossing his arms across his chest to hide his bandaged hand from view.

Chiro looked over at the gray monkey "I'm guessing you're Forge?"

Forge smiled at the boy "I am. You must be the rest of the Hyperforce, yes?"

Antauri floated over and landed a few feet in front of Forge "We are indeed. I am Antauri, it is pleasure to meet you Forge,"

Forge smiled and extended his hand "The pleasure is mine," he didn't realize he was using his bandaged hand.

Artemis did and gasped. "Forge, did you hurt yourself again?"

Forge looked at his hands and hid them both in his arms "Whoops,"

Artemis handed Eclipse to her father—who was more than happy to hold her for a while. "'Whoops' is right, come on," she grabbed the smith by the wrist above his injured hand and pulled him towards the back.

Forge knew better than to struggle, but he could still plead his case. "Ah come on, Artie, it's not that bad. I just got a little too close to the fire,"

Sprx quipped "A _little _too close? You reached right in with your bare hands,"

"_What?_" the purple monkey whirled on her bigger brother who flinched back sheepishly.

"Don't worry, I cleaned it up really good and it didn't do any serious damage,"

"I'll be the judge of that," she released his wrist and grabbed him by the ear and pulled him through a heavily enforced door, which Forge grabbed onto in an attempt to avoid entering but ended up just closing the door behind them.

Dyna turned to the rest of the group. "Well, since they might be awhile, how about I show you guys around?"

"Sure,"

The door suddenly opened and Artemis poked her head out "Just stay out of restricted areas!"

Mandarin chortled back "Not much to restrict on this ship,"

"What about personal quarters?"

Forge pushed the door open a little further so he could lean out. "If you would excuse the mess I don't mind if you have a look around. _Mi casa es su casa…_" he started out friendly but then he sobered "…_pero tocar mis cosas y me rompo las manos,"_ He slowly slid behind the door and Artemis followed, letting it close.

Otto scratched his head "Uh, anybody know what he just said?"

Gibson thought about it "I know what "mi casa es su casa" means but the rest I am unsure of,"

Dyna translated "He said 'My home is your home, but if you touch my stuff I break your hands'. I'd take him seriously if I were you; not only can he make just about anything from metal, his hands turn into giant sledge hammers,"

"Ah, well, good to know,"

Mandarin remembered something "How did she hear us? I thought the lab walls were soundproof?"

Dyna shrugged and clapped her hands together "Right, on with the tour," she held up her arms "Here is the bridge where most of the important stuff happens, that door Artemis and Forge disappeared into is the lab-slash-med. bay where everything else important on the ship happens…" she pointed to the door before leading them to the foyer they had entered through. "That's the air lock that lets us come and go and keeps us from being sucked into space,"

She pointed to four narrow doors towards the back. "The door on the far left is the bunk room, we cut down on space by sharing a room and sleeping in separate bunks," she opened the door and let them look inside. "Sorry about the mess, we don't usually get company,"

There were a few items scattered on the floor and a partially open closet on the wall by the door. The room had four bunks, two on each side.

Otto leaned in through the door "Hey this is cool, you guys get bunk beds! One for you, one for Forge, one for Artemis, one for Mandarin,"

Dyna shook her head "No, there were four of us before Mandarin joined,"

Chiro looked at her "Where's the fourth monkey?"

Dyna leaned against the doorframe "Sh-"

Mandarin cleared his throat and shook his head pointedly. The red female looked at him strangely before continuing "She left a long time ago, then she came back after being missing for months, then she left again when we found Mandarin saying she needed to find something,"

"And she hasn't been back since?"

Dyna shook her head "No, I hope she found what she was looking for,"

Antauri had floated further into the room and spotted a picture frame on a shelf.

Closer inspection revealed it was a digital picture frame that automatically changed the picture every few minutes. The one that just came on was a group picture; Artemis was sitting down holding a month old Eclipse, Mandarin was standing next to her with his arm proudly around them both, Forge was standing behind them and Dyna was on Artemis' other side trying to give Forge "bunny ears".

Antauri smiled, they all seemed so happy. He sensed someone behind him and recognized it as his brother "That was taken the day I got captured," Antauri turned to look at his brother and back at the picture. '_This was the last time they all saw each other,'_

The picture changed again, this one was of the team before they found Mandarin. They were in some alien-looking jungle with white stone buildings in the background. "That was the four of them on their home planet,_ Tec'jangaru,_" Judging by the camera angle and the way his arm was positioned, Forge was holding the camera up so it was pointed at them, Artemis was pressed between him and Dyna who was trying to pull another female into the picture with them and they were all laughing and smiling like kids at a theme park.

It seemed so sweet, until Antauri recognized the fourth monkey and beckoned his brother closer. "Mandarin, come here," The orange monkey complied and Antauri tapped on the picture "You didn't tell me _she _was here," he hissed, both because he didn't want the others to hear and he was "hissed" off at his brother.

Mandarin looked back at him with an "it-was-for-your-own-good" look. "What would you have done if I did?"

Antauri thought about it, he saw his point and let it go… for now.

The two went back out into the hall where Dyna was showing the others the rest of the doors "That door in the center is the waste disposal unit we use to dump the garbage and when we need to… you know, _go_. The door next to it is the cargo hold, which we use for storage and the one on the far right is the kitchenette where we prepare whatever meals or snacks we have on the ship. Mostly we just have freeze dried stuff and non-perishable items,"

She stepped back onto the bridge "And that's about it, our home away from home. Oh look they're back,"

Artemis and Forge came out, the latter had a hot pink bandage taped around his hand grumbling "Did you have to put a pink one on?"

"Yes, to remind you to be more careful next time,"

Chiro, being one with a curious mind full of questions, asked "If this is your 'home away from home' where is your actual home?"

The three of them looked sad and proud when Artemis answered "No matter where in the universe we go, even if we never go back, _Tec'jangaru_ will always be home," her team mates nodded in agreement.

Forge leaned against one of the ship's consoles with his arms crossed "So what brings you, on this fine day, to Ranger 7?"

The Hyperforce told them about how Skeleton King merged with the Dark One Worm and how they had to go after him, and how they stranded Ma'lone on Ranger 7 and needed to hunt him down too once they've gotten fuel.

They looked shocked when they heard about the Worm. "Did you just say you were after a giant Worm?"

Chiro and the monkey team nodded. Artemis waved everyone into the lab and they all crowded into the room; it was about the size of Gibson's own lab on the Robot.

The blue scientist looked around "This is nice, though you seem to have a lot more portable equipment than such that are built in,"

Artemis typed a few commands into the small console "That's because I do more field study than actual lab work,"

Gibson looked at her "You're a scientist?"

A few coiled cables popped up and Artemis checked the connections "Yes, I am. I can do my work in the lab just as well as I can outside of it, just as a portable scanner can, It's just my own personal preference to do field study when I can rather than being in the lab all the time,"

She pressed a few more buttons and turned back to the others "Now then, could you all please connect these cables to the interface modules in your helmets, there is something we want to show you," the monkeys hesitated so she encouraged them with a sweet smile "Don't worry, it's just a quick data transfer,"

One by one, the monkeys went up and plugged the cables into the backs of their helmets, Chiro couldn't plug his right into his head so Otto put it in the back of his space helmet so he could use the face mask as a viewing screen and the built in comm. system could relay whatever sounds went with the image.

Artemis brought down three more cables down from another place on the console and she and her team attached those to their helmets. Eclipse didn't like being left out but her mother rubbed her head "Don't worry sweetie, you'll get to see this someday but not until you're older, okay?" her little girl nodded and she pushed one last button before everyone's eyes went dark and Chiro's helmet lit up.

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_They were suddenly not in the lab anymore. The first thing they saw was a lush blue and green jungle, the air was humid and sweet smelling, in the distance they could hear various animal and bird calls. _

"Tec'jangaru, home," _Artemis' voice flowed through their minds in the form of a teleplay. They were standing on the edge of a cliff that overlooked a small city with some white stone buildings that shone in the light_.

The Hyperforce looked around in awe. "How did we get here?"

"We didn't, all that you see here are recorded memory files stored in our ship's database,"

_Artemis led them to a steep path that seemed to lead down and suddenly drop off. She slid down it until she came to the drop off and dropped down out of sight, she was quickly followed by Dyna and then Mandarin._

_Forge hung back, letting the others go first _"Go on, it's safe,"

_Antauri levitated over the path_ "Forge is right, this is just a projection within our minds so nothing can actually harm us here,"

"Says the flying monkey that can just faze through anything he actually lands on,"_ Sprx rolled his eyes. _

_Nova pushed past him "_You just going to stand around and talk all day or you going to do something?" _she slid down the path and fell from view, Sprx slid down after her._

_Otto slid down on his backside with his arms in the air. "_Whee!"

_Gibson slowly picked his way down, only to be knocked down by Chiro who slipped behind him._

"Whoa…"

"Oops, sorry Gibson," _the young leader scrambled down the rest of the way to make sure he was alright. Once everyone was down, Antauri floated down and Forge half-slid half-walked down the trail until he could jump of the ledge and do a flip._

_On the ground below, Mandarin landed on all fours while Artemis and Dyna landed on their feet, Nova landed on one of her feet but stumbled and fell. Sparx landed face down on the ground, Otto landed in a prickly looking bush. Gibson landed on top of Sparx when he tried to get up. _

_Chiro reached out to grab a nearby branch to slow his fall but his hands went right through it and he landed in another bush._

_Antauri simply floated down to them and went to help Chiro out of the bushes while Forge landed on the balls of his feet and rolled so he came up to the bush Otto was in and helped the green monkey who was cheering "_That was fun, let's do it again!"

_Once everyone was on their feet Artemis led them to the small city where many robot monkeys, Technosimians, went about their business. A group of children ran past them, one went right through Sparx. _"Hey, watch it!"

"Sparx, they can't hear or see you, everything here has already happened, it's like watching a movie in 3D,"

_The group came to a building in the town square that was bigger and more elegant than the rest with a tall stone staircase leading up to a large set of double doors with guards posted in front of it. "_This was Tec'jangaru's capital city, where the High Council debated about political matters while the rest of us actually lived our lives," _They all looked around the bustling city, it was almost like Shuggazoom except on a smaller scale and surrounded by jungle._

"Everything was peaceful, everyone was content with their lives either here or out exploring in whatever vessels they could put together. That was one of the laws there; you weren't allowed to leave unless by means you acquired yourself, either build a ship or ground vehicle out of whatever you could find or just walk or fly with your own rocket pack, but I digress,"

_Her voice took on a grave tone "_Everything was peaceful, until one day our world was attacked by something, something really big and evil,"

_Suddenly the sky became dark and when the team looked up, there in the sky was the Dark One Worm, minus the long pink stem that attached the Skeleton King's head to it._

"The Dark One Worm,"

_Artemis nodded. The Worm turned its attention to the city and fired an energy blast from its mouth at the Council building, incinerating it in seconds. The Technosimians screamed and scattered in a widespread panic._

_The image flickered and they were sent to another part on the planet. The jungle was thicker here, a plain wooden hut was the only sign of civilization besides the ship parked next to it; the same ship they were currently in._

_Fire and small meteors were falling from the sky as four Technosimians packed whatever they could into the ship with them._

"That was us on the 'Final Day', everyone that had the means and the will to do so was fleeing the planet in hopes of surviving long enough to come back and rebuild our home,"

_Dyna was getting the ship ready for take-off while Artemis was carrying out one last bag, tying it shut as she went, and Forge carried another monkey that was covered in too many bandages to recognize._

_Once they were all set the ship took off, along with a few others. One of the other ships was hit by a meteor and went down; they could see a couple of Technosimians had fallen out and were burning as they fell._

_Once the remaining ships had cleared orbit they were targeted by the Worm, whatever ships didn't get destroyed—whether by a failed attempt to escape or an even more foolish attempt to fight the beast off—scattered like a frightened flock of birds._

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The simulation ended there and everyone slowly came to their senses and back to the present.

Chiro took off his helmet since the life support in the ship made sure he didn't actually need it. "So, I'm guessing you guys want in?"

The three nodded with conviction "Oh, yes, we want in,"

Chiro looked to the others who nodded, he smiled and said "Welcome to the team, how soon can you leave?"

"Aside from the fact Forge need to pack up his forge we just need to shut off the hologram projector and fire up the engines and we're all set,"

Chiro looked over at Forge "How long will it take to pack your stuff? Because we can help you if you need it,"

Forge smiled "Thank you, but we've done this enough times where I don't need a whole crowd helping. Now if you all will excuse me I got to go see how fast I can pack everything I've ever had into a box and shove it into storage… again," his bitter words did not suit the friendly cheerful tone he used them with, he honestly didn't seem to mind. He and Dyna left the room and went to the airlock, Nova and Otto followed to see if they could help too.

Forge held the door for all of them and the four of them jogged out to his hut. The two Technosimians went inside to make sure everything was on a hook or on some kind of shelf.

Otto and Nova leaned in through the door "You guys need any help,"

"Thanks but I think we got it," the two of them lifted the anvil over to the workbench, leaving the large wooden block it was on. "Actually, you think you could move that block under the workbench?"

Otto went to lift it but it was too heavy for him so Nova took a side and the two of them moved it over to the bench and slid it onto the base board underneath.

"Thanks, now watch your limbs," the two moved out of the way while Forge and Dyna moved the anvil into the space between the bench and the block and pulled away rolling their shoulders. "Okay now that that's taken care of we just have to fold everything up,"

Dyna grabbed the bench seat and collapsed the legs so she could fold them down and place it next to the anvil under the work bench while Forge detached the billows from the outer ring fire pit and folded that up leaving only the pile of coals behind.

"You guys want to put out the fire?" Forge grabbed the tongs he had dropped earlier with his tail and hung them on a hook on the wall while he was putting the pit frame under the work bench around the anvil.

Otto looked for something to put the fire out with "Just tip the water barrel over it, we need to pack that up too anyway," Otto tried pushing against it but only succeeded in rocking it so Nova went to help him, only for Forge to take the barrel and hold it over the coals like he was watering flowers. Except for the fact he winced when it hissed at him. "Spent months trying to keep that fire alive now I have to snuff it so we can leave,"

For some reason, Nova felt sorry for him "I'm sorry,"

Forge shook his head "Don't be, the fact that we've been on the move so much is the reason we've survived this long," once the barrel was empty he set it down and folded it down into a thick hoop "That's why it's a good idea to have this whole set-up be portable,"

Nova and Otto looked around "This whole thing folds up?"

"Yep," Forge put the bowls that Otto had put the powdered glass in into a box Dyna had found and carried it outside "Now if you two would please step out for a moment," they all went outside and Dyna climbed up on Forge's shoulders and started pulling pins out of the wall.

"Erg, this one's stuck," she turned her hand into a pile driver and pounded some of the surrounding rock away until the pin slid out. "There we go, brute force and awkwardness,"

Forge looked up "Next time, you get to be the awkwardness,"

Dyna smiled and turned her hand back to normal so she could climb up and cling to the rock wall while she pulled the next pin out. Forge stepped inside and grabbed the metal pole that was supporting that side and collapsed it down.

Once Dyna had all the pins out he pulled the pole closer to the work bench, the roof folding down the center as he did. Dyna jumped down and folded the back part of the hut down and came around the other side while Forge crawled out the now smaller door and folded the front down. The two then set to folding everything around the work bench like a cardboard to-go box until the whole thing was folded down to the size of a large trunk. The folded up hut had wheels on the bottom so it could be wheeled around rather than carried.

The only evidence that remained of the forge that was there before was the pile of ashes and extinguished coals on the ground.

"Okay, now to get this in the cargo hold," he looked at the box on the ground "Better not forget that," he balanced it on top of the folded forge and he pushed it towards the back of the ship with Dyna at the front steering.

Nova and Otto followed them in case there was anything else they could help with. They ducked under the tail fins and Forge's ears popped open as he activated his comm. link :Artemis, could you open the hatch to the cargo hold please?:

Artemis' voice buzzed in so they all could hear it :Of course I _could, _but you haven't asked me to actually do it yet.

Chuckling under his breath, he pounded on the hatch shouting in a gruff sing song voice "Lil sis, Lil sis, let me come in,"

She buzzed in again so everyone could hear her playful tone :What's the password?:

Forge shouted both out loud and over the comm. line "Open this door or may the Jungle have mercy on your _soul_!"

The hatch opened with a hiss and came down like a ramp that extended to reach the ground. Dyna pulled the front of the large box up the ramp while Forge pushed from below and Otto followed with the box of jars, Nova followed to make sure Otto didn't break anything else.

Once they got the forge pushed into a spot below one of the lower shelves and strapped down Dyna closed the hatch and Forge took the box from Otto. "Thanks, kid,"

Otto huffed "Hey, I'm not a kid,"

"Otto, you _act _like a kid and compared to me all of you are _children_,"

Nova couldn't help but ask "How old are you,"

Forge waved it off "Not important, I'll tell you later," he opened the door that brought them into the foyer where the others were waiting.

Artemis held Eclipse on her hip and placed her free hand on her other hip. "We really need to get a better password, the one we have sounds bad"

Forge smiled "I know but it works," he held up the box "Is it alright if I put this in the lab while we take off?"

Artemis leaned over to look "What is it?"

"It's my jars of glass, I need to replace the jars and sort the glass later,"

Artemis waved her hand towards the lab dismissively and Forge carried the box inside. "Okay, now that Forge has his whole life packed into boxes and safely stashed for travel all that's left for us to do is turn off the hologram and start our engines; not particularly in that order,"

Chiro nodded "Okay, let's get back to the Super Robot,"

Antauri put a hand on his shoulder "Wait, Chiro, we still haven't gotten any fuel for the Robot,"

"We'll help you," So they all moved out of the ship, locking the doors behind them and went to where they had been mining earlier. It went faster now that they had more help, especially since Dyna used her pile drivers and Forge used his hammers to help Nova break the rocks apart while everyone else loaded them into the carts and brought them into the Robot.

Once they had enough to fill their reserves they started to load up the equipment but stopped when Antauri held his arm out "Wait, I sense someone approaching," They all hid behind a stand of boulders and waited.

Sure enough, out from behind another stand of rocks came someone they wanted to find but at the same time never wanted to see again.

"Ma'lone,"

Dyna leaned over and whispered "Seriously, how in the Jungle could you guys think _that_ was Mandarin?"

"Because he didn't always look like that,"

Chiro hushed them "Guys, quiet. I don't think he knows we're here,"

Antauri ghosted closer to Chiro "I think he heard us harvesting the rocks and came to investigate. He knows we are in the area at least,"

Mandarin edged over to Artemis "Do you think you three can get yourselves and Eclipse to the ship without being detected,"

Artemis looked at him "Yes, but what about you?"

Mandarin looked at her "We'll rendezvous once we've got the Robot and the ship off this moon,"

Artemis looked afraid. "Mandarin…"

Mandarin reached out to hook a finger under her chin and kissed her "Don't worry, I'll come back this time, I promise,"

She kissed him back and slid along the rocks towards Dyna and Forge who followed her and the three disappeared.

Mandarin made his way over to a gap in the rocks. Chiro hissed at him "Mandarin, what are you doing?"

Mandarin gestured for him to be quiet. "Stay down. I'll distract him while you all get back to the Robot,"

Chiro looked back out, assessing the situation and weighing their options, before nodding. "Alright, but be careful. And if you're not back by the time we get the Robot we're coming after you,"

Mandarin nodded and climbed down to hide behind a boulder, waiting for the right moment, just as his target walked past him he jumped out and threw a rock at him "HEY UGLY! Bet you can't catch me!"

The clone snarled and charged after his original on all fours as the two disappeared from sight.

Chiro got up and gestured for everyone to follow him. "Come on, let's get to the Robot before he figures out what's going on," They all sprang from hiding and rushed whatever equipment they had out there back to the Super Robot.

As soon as they got inside they went straight for the command center to get the Robot up and running. Chiro got on the communications and contacted Mandarin. "Mandarin, where are you?"

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Mandarin ran as fast as he could with his clone not far behind, he could hear the Formless-Simian's snarls and judging by the sounds of those snarls that cheap knock off was out for blood.

Just when he was about to shake him, Mandarin got distracted by an incoming signal on his communicator and tripped.

Cursing as he slid down a small slope, he heard Chiro's voice buzz in on his communicator. :Mandarin, where are you?:

Mandarin got up and continued running "Can't talk, being chased by my evil twin right now,"

:Where are you at, we'll come get you,:

Mandarin got a really stupid idea "Hang on, I'll just bring the party to you," he took a sharp turn and circled around to double back, the clone getting too close for comfort. Mandarin ran as fast as he could until he had to resort to using his rocket pack to move even faster. Right in the nick of time the Super Robot came into view, the metal giant's head turning around to look for him.

Mandarin flew right up to it but his clone was using his own rocket pack and was buzzing after him like an angry hornet so he flew in close so the clone came within the Super Robot's reach and was swatted away.

Mandarin landed on the Robots outstretched hand and look back to see the small asteroid ship from before zooming in to catch Ma'lone; not only had he managed to repair it he was using his power—both the Power Primate he had stolen from Koraladal to further the ruse when he was posing as him and the dark magic he learned from Skeleton King—to summon it.

A hissing sound drew Mandarin's attention to a small hatch that opened into the cockpit of Fist Rocket 4 so he could ride Gibson's tube down. '_Good ol' Gibson,'_ he hopped inside and took the blue tube down to the command center just as Gibson came down another section of tube to get to his battle station like the others were currently doing.

Once Mandarin made it down to the command center he noticed it was completely deserted "Where is everyone?"

The command center's main screen came on to reveal everyone in their stations. "Mandarin everyone's in their stations already, I suggest you find a seat and strap in,"

Thinking it would be the same arrangement as last time, Mandarin ran over to the tubes. Seeing this, Antauri pressed a button that closed off his tube. "Whoops, now you can't ride in Brain Scrambler 2 with me, Sorry,"

Mandarin glared at the screen and inspected the tube like he was trying to find a way to either open it manually or climb up on the outside "Oh come on, Antauri, I'm not that bad, am I?"

"…No, you didn't bother me at all,"

Mandarin laughed dryly "Antauri remember how I told you I could tell how you were lying but wouldn't tell you what your 'tell' was? It was because you're such a bad liar you don't _need_ a 'tell'!"

Antauri pressed another button that muted everything that was being said from the command center, the proof of this was the word "MUTE" flashing across his portion of the screen in green letters. Mandarin simply flipped him off with a mischievous look on his face and went to strap himself into the chair he sat in on the ride their.

As soon as everyone was set they took off and flew after Ma'lone's asteroid ship, since it didn't have any weaponry and has already sustained damage all it could do was limp away from any potential fights.

As they flew, they were joined by the Technosimian's ship and Mandarin patched their communications into the Super Robot's so they could stay in touch with each other to avoid miscommunication during the fight. "Artemis I'm patching your ship's communications to ours. Starting… now"

Then another screen lit up showing Artemis, Forge and Dyna at their own stations.

:Testing, testing, Can everyone hear me over there?:

Antauri unmuted his comm. channel and they all shouted "Loud and clear, Artemis,"

Dyna came on the comm. system "Good, now let's go clone hunting,"

Then Eclipse appeared on the screen perched on her mother's shoulder waving at the camera "Hi evewybody!"

Mandarin smiled "Hi, sweetie, now fasten your seatbelt in case things get rough okay? Wait... Dyna, are you at the weapons' controls?"

"Okay, daddy," Eclipse climbed down into Artemis' lap so she could put her seatbelt around them both while Dyna looked shifty.

"Uh… no?"

Mandarin rubbed his temple "It's fine, just remember to identify, aim and _then _fire,"

"Oh come on, I'm not that bad,"

"Don't make me come over there,"

"YOU'RE NOT THE BOSS OF ME!"

Artemis cut in "Both of you stop fighting each other and start fighting the thing in the flying asteroid that we're actually supposed to be fighting,"

They both bowed their heads "Yes ma'am,"

Sparx snickered "Dude, you got told off by your girlfriend,"

"She's not my girlfriend, Sparky," Mandarin snapped, ignoring Sparx grumbling "Don't call me that," and continued "She's my mate… and Alpha,"

The other members of the monkey team were confused so he just shrugged "I'll explain later, let's just focus on taking out Ma'lone,"

Chiro gripped the controls of Torso Tank 1 "Alright team, let's finish this!"

Nova hit her fists together before grabbing the controls for Foot Crusher Cruiser 6. "This time let's take him down and make sure he stays down,"

Dyna pressed a few buttons and did some calculations "If we take out his right auxiliary thruster it should cripple him enough to get in close enough to do some serious damage, even if he spins out of control he's more likely to spin out into open space than if he hit him anywhere else,"

Otto checked her theory with his own know-how "Good call Dyna, but where gonna have to really take it out or he can still regain control,"

"Let us do it, our ship is smaller than the Robot so we could get in closer for a better shot,"

Mandarin reached out to touch the screen "Be careful,"

Artemis smiled "We will, you just behave and follow your own advice," she turned the ship's yoke and angled the ship to rocket after the asteroid, aiming for the thrusters at the back.

Dyna brought down the targeting grid from the ceiling so it was over her eyes. "Okay, ready… aim… FIRE!" she pressed both buttons on her controls and fired a laser shot off the underside of each side wing which came together in the center and merged together into one beam that took out the entire right side of the back half of the asteroid ship.

"WHOO HOO! Got him!"

The asteroid flipped to the right as the monkey team maneuvered the Robot to get within striking range. Chiro flipped the cover off a button on the steering wheel with his thumb and got ready to press it. "LASERTRON… WHOA!"

Something had crashed into the side of the Robot, something big. "What happened?"

Otto and Nova did what they could to get the Robot stabilized. "We hit something… or something hit us,"

They turned around to see and were shocked by what they saw, The Dark One Worm.

"It's the Worm, what's it doing here?"

Antauri adjusted his grip on the controls "Apparently it didn't get as far as we originally thought,"

Chiro smirked "Well, that certainly makes our job easier, Hyperforce Go!"

The Technosimians turned around and doubled back to back them up, darting to the side and harrying the Worm like a giant metal pissed-off sparrow while the Robot dodged an energy blast and moved to the other side to fire on it.

"Missiles ready!" The Robot's arms spread and opened up to bare its missile launchers. "Fire!" the missiles shot forward and peppered the side of its head and down its neck.

The beast roared and arched its body to the side to ram into the Robot and fly around the smaller ship.

Antauri noticed something off about the Worm's flight pattern. "Wait, it's not actually after us,"

Artemis noticed too "Right, we just made it angry,"

They all watched as the Worm slithered towards the crippled asteroid. "It's after Ma'lone's ship,"

"Well, then let's get them,"

Of course, Antauri had to be the voice of reason "Wait, we need to know what we're dealing with here,"

Reluctantly, they all hung back as the Worm went up and swallowed the asteroid as if it were a housefly.

"AND STAY DEAD!" Sparx yelled, everyone on the team silently agreed.

Then the Worm turned towards them. "And _now _it's after us,"

Chiro noticed he still had the button uncovered and pressed it "LASERTRON FURY!" a bright white-blue energy blast shot out of the Super Robot's torso and left a deep burn along the Worm's side while the Technosimians fired shot after shot, both combined shots like before and single alternating blasts from each side. The monster screamed and retreated out to deeper space.

"After it!" Both vessels went after it in hot pursuit.

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_**Thanks to everyone that has read this so far, whether you have been reading it since the beginning or just getting into it. I already named names in the first chapter of this rare two-parter streak I'm on, you all know who you are.**_

_**Read and Review, any flames will be fed to the Dark One Worm.**_


	7. Chapter 7

Monkey Doodle

Chapter 7

Rated T for language, dark themes such as mentioning of infant sacrifice, and anything else I might have missed.

Disclaimer: Ok, It is chapter seven and I am no closer to owning the monkey team or anyone legally affiliated with them than I was in the last chapter. I only own my OC's. Parts of this chapter are based off of the episode "Season of the Skull"

I apologize if any names or places are misspelled. The only websites I can find about the show only mention the plot and main characters. If anyone knows the correct spelling –or the actual name of that thing Chiro does when he turns into the giant green monkey—let me know and I'll change it.

For the record, if some words are left off or shortened with apostrophes, like "Scawy," or "Don'," when Eclipse is talking , it's because she's still a little girl whose learning how to talk and sometimes uses "Baby talk,". I haven't got any comments about it yet but I want to save anyone that might the trouble.

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The Worm slithered through space with the Hyperforce and the Technosimians hot on its trail.

Gibson checked the scanners "The Skelton King Worm is gaining speed. Its distance is two-point-seven astro units,"

Chiro got this serious look he always got when they were about to go in way over their heads and hope for the best. "This is it, team, charging torso canons," the cannons popped up out of the Robots shoulders and beginning charging, after a few seconds they were fully charged.

"FIRE!" two pale blue balls of energy shot out and hit the Worm in the center of its back. The creature roared and turned to face them, growling.

Nova shrank down into her seat "Uh, I think we just made it angry,"

Forge's fingers flew across the console he was stationed at, hitting various buttons and switches, checking the screen as if looking for something in particular. "No, it was already angry at us, now we just made it mad enough to actually attack us.

Antauri leaned forward "Hold our position,"

Forge found the program he was looking for. "Here it is. Let's see if this works…" he turned in his seat to look at Dyna "Hey, Dyna, are those nitrogen missiles you were working on before operational?"

Dyna smiled at him "Already in the dropper,"

"Awesome," he hit a few more buttons and another targeting screen came down in front of his face. "Missiles ready when you are, Artemis,"

Artemis flipped the ship around to fly between the Robot and the Worm and held that position. "Fire!" Forge hit the button to launch the missiles which embedded themselves along the Worm's side, releasing nitrogen in both its liquid and gas forms, simultaneously freezing and burning the creature's skin.

With another outraged roar, the Worm released a swirling beam of dark energy that engulfed both the ship and the Robot.

Everyone held onto something as both vessels shook violently.

"What's happening?"

Gibson checked the scanners again "That beam is transporting us across the galaxy,"

Unable to pull out, both teams had no choice but to sit tight and hope they survived long enough to figure out where they were going.

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When the warp storm cleared up, they were in some unknown zone that was shrouded by a thick fog.

The Robot was standing firmly on the ground while the Technosimians ship was simply and the ground with its landing gear drawn up, as if the former intended to land there and the latter was gently placed on the ground, rather than both crash landing as expected.

Chiro and the monkey team exited the Robot through the hatch in its foot while the Technosimians climbed out the air lock.

Nova held up her hand but could barely see it through the fog let alone where they were. "Ugh, I can't see anything through this fog,"

Mandarin looked around for Artemis and her team; he could sense them nearby but couldn't see them. "Artemis? Eclipse? Dyna? Forge? Where are you?"

"Over here!"

He turned in the direction of the voice "Where?"

"Oh for the love of… Marco!"

Remembering the game, Mandarin called back "Polo!"

"Marco!"

"Polo!"

A few shouts later and the Technosimians found the rest of the group, and then they all realized that none of them had a clue where they were.

"Uh… where are we?"

Then Antauri sensed something and gestured for everyone to be still "Wait, I sense many life forms approaching,"

Everyone listened but didn't hear anything. Suddenly they were surrounded by glowing yellow eyes.

Otto saw movement overhead and looked up "Chiro look out!"

A tiny black creature with glowing yellow eyes, stubby little bat wings and clawed hands swooped down and tried to sink its sharp pointy teeth into Chiro, who held it back until Artemis turned her hands into electric whips and lashed them across its face, leaving deep smoldering cuts across its eyes and mouth.

The creature screamed and retreated as more demons stepped forward. Artemis readied her whips for the next strike while the others got their weapons ready.

Sparx attacked first "Magnatingler Blast!" but it had no effect and he was knocked down to the ground.

Nova tried to use her fists on another monster but it opened its mouth wide and swallowed her. She punched and kicked until it spat her back up and flew away, leaving her covered in green slime on the ground while Forge covered her by throwing his hammers out on thick chains that came out of his arms as he swung out at anything that came within his extended strike range.

Everyone tried to attack and counter attack whatever the demons could throw at them but it didn't do any good.

As the fight wore on, more and more monsters started to target Artemis and Antauri; the ones going after the purple female were more partial to attempting to snatch Eclipse away from her, resulting in Mandarin attempting to slice them apart with his sword, but it just went straight through them as if they were made of wet tar.

Gibson stood back to back with Otto "Our powers are useless against these fiends," Everyone gathered into a circle formation to watch each other's backs; Artemis also made sure Eclipse was on her back and in the center of the circle as she hid her face in her mother's shoulder.

As the monsters circled around them, they heard something else approaching. Otto located it and pointed with one of his saws "Uh oh, more monsters,"

Out of the shadows stepped, not another monster, but what appeared to be someone in a mask. The figure faced the demons and held up his hands and shouting in a haunting tone of voice. "Back!"

The creatures seemed afraid of the masked figure, screaming and shying away. "Vile creatures of the night!" he kept it up until all of the monsters were gone and walked up to Chiro and the monkeys.

He looked down at them and spoke with a soft, friendly voice. "You are safe, strangers. It is only a mask," he pulled off his green mask to reveal the face of an old man with white eyes, a pointed nose and slightly pointed teeth.

Just then, a gust of wind swept by and the fog cleared up, revealing a scraggly forest under a full moon set in a starless orange sky.

Chiro turned to the man "Where in the universe are we?"

The old man smiled kindly and gestured with his arm to a nearby town. "Right outside of Cryptovania, my friends," They looked and saw a small town made of plain wooden township buildings "I am Magistrate of this tiny town, follow me," The old man set off towards the town with both teams following him.

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Cryptovania as a whole, while slightly creepy, seemed like a quiet town.

Until a pumpkin shaped carriage went rolling by being pulled by two giant screaming black cats. They all stopped on the side of the road to stare at it while Otto and Dyna stepped out into the road to take in the scenery.

"Wow, look at how spooktacular everything is!"

"I know. This whole town is like that autumn holiday celebrated on this one planet we went to a while back. It's too bad they only do awesome stuff like this one day a year,"

Just then, a scarecrow with a pumpkin head popped up on a creaky stand close to where Sparx, Nova and Forge were standing.

Sparx saw it and shuddered "Can we leave now?"

Nova smirked at him "What's the matter? Sca-a-ared?" She held out the word as she raised her arms to scare him.

He put his hands on his hips, trying to hide the fact that he was "No, I just got this weird feeling,"

Gibson walked up "I agree with Sparx—for once—this world and its customs are highly suspicious,"

Forge looked at him "You think everything is suspicious, don't you?" but then he looked at the people gathered in the street; all of them were deathly pale and stared with empty eyes that had dark circles around them, like they haven't slept in weeks.

The teams also noticed that each of them clutched a mask of some sort as if they were ready to deflect bullets with them at a moment's notice.

As the Magistrate lead them down the street, Chiro walked next to him and asked "So, Magistrate… um, what exactly is going on around here?"

The Magistrate looked at the ground with a sad look on his face "A great curse has befallen us, every night demons from the netherworld come and steal our little ones away,"

Gibson stepped up to walk on his other side "Demons, you say?"

The Magistrate nodded and dug his mask out of his coat. "The only thing that can ward them off are masks more frightening than they,"

Dyna craned her neck and stood on her tip-toes for a better look at it "It don't look so scary to me,"

Gibson was still lost in thought about the demons "If those 'demons' have been stealing the townspeople's children then why did they attack us?"

The Magistrate saw Eclipse clutching her mother and trembling. "Ah, it seems you have a little one yourself,"

Eclipse saw that he saw her and tried to hide from him, her tremors increasing with fright.

"Now, now little one, I mean you no harm," he knelt down and reached into his pocket to pull out a piece of candy. "Here, have a sweet," he held it out to her with a smile.

Eclipse looked at the candy and at her mother who nodded. Eclipse slowly reached out for the candy but pulled back when she saw the Magistrate's pointed teeth.

Artemis reached out for it. "Here, I'll give it to her. She's not used to meeting strangers, she's still getting used to Chiro, as a matter of fact,"

The Magistrate handed her the candy "Of course, wouldn't want to frighten the poor little thing, would we,"

Artemis took the candy with a nod of thanks and handed it to her daughter, who sniffed it before pulling back the foil wrapper and eating it.

"What do you say?" Artemis reminded her.

"Thank you,"

They came to an old looking house on the top of a hill. Lightning flashed overhead as a thin woman in a long black dress with dark eye make-up and red hair appeared on the porch and spoke in an eerie voice "We call this curse 'the season of the skull',"

The fact that she knew what they had been talking about was about as creepy as everything else about her.

The Magistrate spoke "This is my wife, Seferina, welcome to our humble abode," he held out his arm and the front doors opened on their own to allow a flock of bats to fly out of the house and into the orange sky.

Sparx held up his hands "Whoa, whoa, whoa, if you think I'm going into _that _house with _that _creepazoid you're out of your box!" he crossed his arms and turned away as the others filed in.

Gibson held back to say something to his brother "No need to fear these superstitious life forms, Sparx. Curses, magic, it's all a mass of mumbo jumbo,"

Antauri walked behind Gibson "Don't be too hasty to condemn these people's beliefs, Gibson,"

Forge waited with Sparx to see if he could change his mind. "Gibson's right about one thing, this place may seem creepy, but I think you're looking for threats in the wrong places,"

Sparx just snorted so he tried a different approach "Okay, let me put it this way; you can either go in the house with the rest of us or you can sit out here by yourself. Your choice," he slowly walked up the porch steps, deliberately making them creek loudly enough to make Sparx jump and decide inside with the others was probably safer than being sorry out here and ran inside after everyone else.

Once they were inside, the Magistrate lit a lantern to light the dark room and explained "There are only a handful of little ones left in the village," he turned to them, pleading "We need your help,"

Seferina smiled at them and opened a cupboard on the wall "Here strangers, take these magic masks to protect yourselves,"

Chiro stepped forward and grabbed one that looked like Frankenstein's monster and spun around quickly "RAWR!"

Sparx screamed and took a step back when Chiro yelled in his face with a mask on. Eclipse also screamed and hid because she thought Chiro actually turned into a monster.

Seferina saw her and knelt down next to Artemis "Oh, there, there little one. It's alright, no one is going to hurt you," She stood and went to the mantle and pulled down a little pink kitten mask. "Here, you can wear this one. It belonged to my little girl, it should fit you,"

She looked at the mask and ran her thumb over it lovingly "This one was her favorite, until she left it at home one day…"

The Magistrate put a hand on his wife shoulder. "Ah, Luanna, we miss her so much,"

Artemis gingerly took the mask that was handed to her as if it were made of eggshells "I'm so sorry,"

Seferina looked up at her, tears that had yet to fall making her make up run. "Please, help us get our little ones back,"

While the two mothers spoke, the others selected their masks, Sparx got a red devil, Nova got a witch—which she wasted no time scaring Sparx with and did her best "wicked witch cackle" to top it off.—Mandarin snagged a Medusa mask for Artemis and a tiger one for himself, Dyna got a gas mask and of course Chiro was keeping his Frankenstein.

Otto located a Jack-a-lope mask and started hopping around like a rabbit "Hey, guys look, I'm a Jack-a-lope!"

Forge came up with his mask behind his back "I see your Jack-a-lope and raise you…" he pulled out a furry black mask with a white stripe down the center "…A skunk!"

Gibson donned a vampire mask that had a matching cape. "I really hope _blood drinking _is not part of this ritual,"

Antauri found a phantom mask and chuckled at the irony. "I suppose my 'ghost mode' will be appropriate now," he shifted into said form.

Sprx looked over at Antauri's ghost form and subconsciously looked at his brother's midsection and had to do a double take. At first he thought his eyes were playing tricks on him but then he smirked '_Well, looks like Antauri is starting to get a little tummy on him,' _

Sparx pointed this out "Hey, Antauri, I think you should lay off the carrots and pudding for a while. You're starting to show,"

Antauri looked down at himself. Sure enough, the lines that ran across his form branched off at his midsection and emphasized the changes occurring in his body. He was immediately embarrassed and held the mask in front of him while he deactivated his ghost form and put it back on his face to hide his blush.

The Technosimians realized what it all met and stared at him. "Antauri, are you…"

Antauri smiled a small sheepish smile "Yes… I'm pregnant,"

Artemis pulled her mask back over her head and took out a handheld device. "May I?"

Antauri nodded and stood still while a thin yellow beam shot out and ran up and down his body before shutting off so Artemis could view the scan results.

"Hmm, I gather you are around two months along and everything seems to be going as well as it should so far, at least as far as I can tell…" She unplugged and put away the device smiling at him. "Congratulations,"

Forge and Dyna offered their own congratulations. Antauri smiled and thanked them.

The Magistrate clasped his hands together. "Oh yes, we must offer our congratulations as well, my friend. This truly is a momentous occasion,"

Seferina smiled at him as well then turned serious "Indeed it is, but this may be why you were attacked before; the demons must have sensed your unborn and tried to carry you off along with it,"

While everyone else was distracted, Gibson spotted an open book in the corner and went over for a closer look. "Hmm, what's this?" he read the title "'The Grimoir of Necrotis'?" he started flipping through the pages. "Perhaps there is a rational explanation to this mystery in this diabolical looking tome,"

Just as he came to a page dominated by a rather imposing rune shaped like one of the demon's heads, they all heard a noise outside and looked out the window.

"The demons, the demons have returned,"

Outside, the townspeople ran screaming as the little winged monsters swarmed down from the sky.

The Hyperforce and the Technosimians went out into the street to see what they could do to help fight of the demons, half expecting their attacks to be useless like the last time.

Oddly enough, now that they had their masks their attacks actually seemed to do some damage.

Antauri extended his claws and went to use his "Mega Monkey Paw" attack and the demon fell to the side, reeling from the impact of the blow. There was just one problem; Antauri didn't actually strike the demon. It was reacting to a blow before he even delivered it.

That's when Antauri came to a horrifying realization; the demons were just pretending that their attacks were helping now that they had masks on. He started to warn the others but another demon came up and grabbed him from behind, clamping a clawed hand over his mouth. He couldn't break free and the creature rendered his fazing abilities useless as another came up to help the first two drag him off.

On the other side of the battlefield, the demons were doing everything they could to drive Artemis away from the others as she lashed out to keep them at bay with her whips but, slowly but steady, they were forcing her back until she was on the other side of the street where they could surround her and take turns swiping at her with their claws.

She knew they were just toying with her until she tired, let her guard down, so they could snatch her baby girl away from her.

At some point they just got tired of fooling around and one ducked under her whips to grab her arm, twisting it back until she cried out while another came up and did the same on the other side and shook her until Eclipse's mask fell off.

Mandarin heard his family scream and rushed to their aide, slicing through anything that dared get in his way. Just as he was about to reach them, the demons pried Eclipse off of Artemis and flew off with her thrown across one of the demons shoulders, banging her little fists against it and screaming for her mom and dad the whole way.

They were about to pursue them with their rocket packs but they had vanished into thin air.

"_**ECLI-I-PSE!**_" Artemis screeched at the sky before she buried her face into Mandarin's chest, sobbing as he held her whispering "We'll get her back, I promise," with sorrow-filled urgency.

The townspeople showed up, also appearing to be grieving. "What's wrong with everyone?"

Seferina appeared with the Magistrate "Our little ones, they're gone! They're all gone!"

Gibson frowned "Strange, I only saw them take Eclipse and one other…" then he realized something "Where's Antauri?"

The others looked around for the silver monkey. "Oh no, they took him too!"

Chiro looked at the Magistrate. "How can we get them back?"

"There is only one way… You must find the Mystic Flame of Thanatos. Its fire is the only thing that can destroy the demons,"

"Where do we find this flame?"

The Magistrate pointed to a dark forest on the edge of town "It forever burns in the sacred cemetery on the other side of the dark forest, but I must warn you, few that have ventured there have ever returned,"

Chiro smiled "Don't worry Magistrate, how hard can it be to find a flame in a dark cemetery?"

Gibson stepped up. "Magistrate, would it be too much trouble if I borrowed that book you have in your library? There might be something in it that could help,"

Magistrate nodded "Of course, my friend, if you really think it would help,"

Gibson nodded and went inside to retrieve it, making sure not to say which book he was borrowing in case it made anyone suspicious of his motives.

Once Gibson came back out with the book under his arm, The Magistrate and Seferina showed them a path that led into the forest.

"This path will lead you to the cemetery,"

The couple waved to them as they entered the forest "Stay on the path my friends, lest evil comes," then they were enveloped in fog and disappeared from view.

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As they walked down the path through the spooky forest, the only sounds heard were their own movements, crickets chirping and the occasional hoot of an owl.

Inevitably, someone complained about how long they've been walking.

Nova looked up at the trees "Where are we? Feels like we've been walking forever,"

Dyna groaned "How much longer?"

Forge looking over at her with mock exasperation "Seriously? You can live through a rain of fire yet you can't walk through the woods at night? I thought you liked it here,"

Dyna good naturedly punched him on the arm and he playfully pushed her back.

Gibson looked up and saw the moon, in the exact same spot it was in when they got there. "Has anyone noticed the moon hasn't moved since we've arrived here?"

Artemis looked up and saw it too. "Gibson's right, there's something strange going on here,"

Sparx stepped between them "Listen, gab all you want but I say let's take a short cut,"

Chiro turned to look at him while he walked "No way Sparx, remember what Seferina said about staying on the path? 'Lest evil comes'?"

Sparx held up his hands in surrender "Okay, okay, just let me get a bird's eye view," he activated his rocket pack and started to fly higher when something hit him in the head, knocking him to the ground.

When he was finally able to tell up from down again, he realized two things as he shakily got up. One, the trees were moving and Two, he was off the path. Oh yeah, he forgot about the third thing, THE TREES WERE ATTACKING HIM!

The others saw this too and rushed over to help him but that meant leaving the path and, consequently, they were attacked too. They fought off the demon trees until Chiro told everyone to get back to the path and they all ran for it.

They all got on the path okay except for Otto, who had a branch wrap around him as he crossed over. Fortunately, the trees all went back to normal once everyone was back of the path so he was just caught in a regular tree branch.

While everyone was catching their breath, Nova went up to Sparx "Sparx I'm going to say this one time… STAY ON THE PATH!" she yelled so loud she put "Monkey Mind Scream" to shame right in his ear.

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_Meanwhile_

Antauri slowly brought his systems back online, bringing his consciousness back to the waking world. Once he was aware he looked around, not knowing where he was but he felt something around his wrist, ankles and his waist. He opened his eyes and looked down to see he was in chains… the same magic chains that were used on him when he was captured by Ma'lone.

'_What the…?'_

"Uncle 'Tauri?" he looked over and saw Eclipse curled up on the ground next to him, scared, shivering and hugging herself like she just wanted to be held.

Thinking that was exactly what she wanted and relieved to see she was otherwise okay, he sat up and held out his arms to her "Come here, Eclipse,"

She scurried over to him so he could pull her into his lap and hold her, mindful of the chain wrapped around her waist. "Where are we?"

Antauri looked around at their surroundings "It appears to be a cellar of some sort,"

The ceiling was low and the floor was dirt, on the far wall there were shelves filled with jars containing canned fruits, vegetables and preserves, there was a small dusty window with wooden bars nailed over it and a thick wooden door that most likely lead to the stairs that lead to and from the cellar.

Eclipse snuggled closer "Uncle 'Tauri, I'm scawed. I want Mama and Daddy,"

Antauri held her close and rubbed her head "Shh, it's okay. The others will find us soon,"

She looked up at him with tear filled eyes "Why did the scawy monsters take us?"

Antauri wiped her tears with his thumb. "Because the 'scawy monsters' have been taking children, and you're a child,"

"But why they take you?"

Antauri smiled "Because I'm pregnant and they sensed that. You know what that means right?"

Eclipse shook her head so he explained, placing his hand on his stomach. "Pregnant means I have a baby growing inside of me. Those demons somehow knew it was there and decided they wanted to take me along with it,"

Eclipse looked at his stomach, deducing that since he put his hand there when he talked about it that must be where the baby was, and put her ear against it as if trying to hear it. "How'd it get in there?"

Since she wasn't old enough to know how it actually happens, he gave her a fully edited version of what happened to him "Someone decided they wanted to see if they could grow a baby inside of me so they put something inside of me that would make a baby grow and now I have one growing inside of me," he smiled and rubbed her head "So I guess this means you will have a cousin soon,"

She smiled up at him but it disappeared when they heard someone coming down the stairs and she clung to him, shaking with fear as they both watched the door to see who would enter through it. The door opened and someone came in, at first they were blinded by the light that shone into the room behind the figure but then it spoke with a familiar voice.

"Ah, I see you are awake,"

Antauri's eyes flared in recognition '_Oh no…'_

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_Back with the others_

Dyna noticed Gibson was reading that book he borrowed from the Magistrate and tried to read over his shoulder. "What are you reading?"

Gibson waved his hand dismissively "A so-called book of magic, but I highly doubt it actually works,"

"Let me try it out," Otto grabbed the book and read the first thing he saw out loud. "Agulu, coo coo, roo roo!"

A puff of smoke popped up around Gibson's head and when it cleared he had the head of a rooster with blue and white feathers. "Egad, I have become some form of poultry!"

Dyna and Sparx both laughed at him while Otto grinned with satisfaction. Then Gibson started preening himself "Admittedly I make a rather handsome chicken," so Otto changed him back with "Allaha muku lumui,"

Nova called over her shoulder at them "Oh well, at least you know the book works,"

Dyna leaned over to read over Otto's shoulder "Can I try one?"

Gibson grabbed the book and snapped it shut with a huff. "Nonsense, it is merely the will manipulating reality at the quantum level. I really don't believe in magic," He said the last part like he was trying to convince himself as much as the others so they left it at that.

The rest of the trip went without incident until they ran out of path. At first they panicked but then Mandarin pointed ahead of them. "Chiro, look,"

They all looked ahead of them and saw they were standing at a gate in a wrought iron fence surrounding a grove covered with headstones.

"The Sacred Cemetery"

They all walked inside and in between the grave markers. Sparx shivered "Is anyone else wierded out by this?"

Dyna looked around "Yeah, should we even be here? This place _is _sacred after all,"

Forge pulled her behind him and sidestepped so they were walking single file with the others "Take nothing but pictures and leave nothing but footprints. And don't touch anything, especially the graves,"

Artemis looked closer at the graves "Does anyone notice not a single one of these graves has an inscription, or any signs of actual digging for that matter?"

"And the weirdness continues,"

Chiro looked around "Anyone see the Mystic fire thing?"

Mandarin sensed something nearby and craned his neck to look around until he saw a flickering light. "It's just over this hill,"

They all walked to the top of the hill and saw a green flame burning on a black torch that was held by a statue of one of the demons.

Chiro went up and grabbed the torch, which released a puff of green flames when he pulled it out of the statue's grasp. "The Mystic Flame of Thanatos,"

Suddenly they heard a moaning sound as the Jack-o-Lanterns scattered across the cemetery floated into the air and grew ghostly bodies.

Thinking these sentinels were a threat, the two teams attacked, but each of their attacks went right through the ghost bodies.

Chiro looked at Gibson "Gibson, use the book,"

Gibson held it up helplessly "But I can't make it work! It's not logical!"

Two of the phantoms grabbed Chiro by the arms. "Ack, Gibson!"

"Oh very well," he read out loud. "Clautu barrado nikto!" a puff of smoke appeared above him and a flower grew out of his head, the blue monkey was completely oblivious to it. "Nothing happened,"

Mandarin attacked the two pumpkin ghosts holding Chiro, slicing the gourd heads apart with his sword and sending the orange pulp to splatter on Gibson. This gave him an idea "Everyone, aim for the gourds!"

They all concentrated their attacks on the creature's heads. It was working well until one of them removed its head and threw it at Sparx while another grew back in its place. The gourd lodged itself on Sparx's head. He tried to pull it off but to no avail "Hey, get this thing off of me!"

Forge pulled a knife out of a compartment in his arm and put his bandaged hand on Sparx's shoulder "Sparx, don't move!" Sparx held still while the bigger monkey made precise cuts in the gourd along the sides of his head that connected at the top and pried the thing off of him.

Sparx gave him a shaky thumbs-up. "Thanks,"

"No problem," he threw the knife into another gourd head and grabbed it, pulling the blade across the head to slice it open.

Soon all the guards were dismantled and scattered across the ground. Chiro held up the torch triumphantly. "We got the magic flame-thingy, let's go back to town,"

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Back in Cryptovania, the Magistrate and his wife sat on the porch swing at their house, staring at the ground somberly, Chiro and the monkeys had been gone for hours and no one has seen or heard from them since. They were beginning to fear the worst when…

"Magistrate!"

The couple looked up and saw the group cresting the hill, in Chiro's hand was the torch they were sent to get.

They met at the bottom of the porch steps "Strange ones you've done it!"

"You have found the Mystic flame,"

None of the others noticed, but Gibson, Artemis and Forge saw how they eyed the green flames greedily as the Magistrate took the torch from Chiro.

It became more obvious when the Magistrate grinned wickedly and held up the torch to send out a burst of flame.

Suddenly, the sky was filled with demons; rather than repelling them the flame actually _summoned _the monsters.

As the demons swarmed around them, the townspeople gathered around them, the crowd laughing darkly.

The team looked around warily "What's going on?"

The Magistrate's voice suddenly lost its kind, quiet demeanor and was replaced by a snarling gruff tone "You fools, we've been trying to get this Mystic flame forever… but _demons_ are forbidden to enter the sacred cemetery,"

As he said the word "demon" he sprouted gray-green fur all over his body, sharp tusk-like fangs grew out of his bottom lip and curled ram horns grew out of the side of his head.

Seferina's skin became green and pebbled, her back arched, her teeth grew longer and came to sharp points and a pair of pointed goat horns sprouted out of the top of her head. All of the townspeople made similar transformations.

Otto chose that moment to point of the obvious "This doesn't look so good,"

Seferina cackled wildly "Now do you understand?" she gestured to the smaller black demons around her "These imps weren't _stealing _our children, these imps _are _our children,"

Artemis glared at Seferina "You mean that whole story about losing your little girl was a lie? And to cover it up you took mine away from me? Why you… you… ugh, I can't even say it now that I know children are about!"

Chiro held up his mask "Well, what about this?" he put it on, the Hyperforce monkeys followed suit—the Forge and Dyna were too busy trying to hold Artemis and Mandarin back.

The Magistrate laughed at them and held up his mask "Did you really think those masks would protect you?"

With a slithering sound, the masks became ropes and wrapped around them. They instinctively struggled to get free but the ropes wouldn't budge as they were levitated off the ground.

"The only reason any of you stood a chance against our little ones while you had those masks on was because we asked them to take it easy on you. Your friend had figured it out during the last skirmish. We couldn't have him tell you of his findings so we simply incorporated him into our plan a little sooner than we anticipated,"

Chiro's eyes glowed green as he glared at the Magistrate, who kidnapped his dad—again—and an innocent little girl just to get them to jump through their hoops for them. "MONKEY FU!"

The green energy blast flew toward the Magistrate, but the demon held up the torch and released a jet of flame that dispersed the attack. The Magistrate and his wife laughed "You really think you can attack us with the same energy Thanatos' Mystic flame is derived from? You have fallen right into my trap, _boy,_" The townspeople followed the Magistrate as he walked to a place outside of town Chiro and the monkeys hadn't seen before.

As they were pulled along behind them like circus balloons, Mandarin's eyes widened in realization. "Wait, Thanatos… ugh, I knew that name sounded familiar!" he slumped his head forward in an attempt to face palm but his arms were bound to his sides.

Chiro paused in his fruitless struggling and looked over at the orange monkey. "Mandarin, what is it?"

Mandarin hung his head for a moment "I can't believe I forgot that story," he lifted his head and stared straight in from of him. "Thanatos was one of the first students of the Verron Mystics. They told us about him at Koraladal; he was a gifted student but no one took him seriously became he was actually a demon himself. But eventually he became a Master and once he did he went back to his home world, which was somewhere in this very part of the cosmos. Shortly after his return, one of the Dark Ones attacked his home world, and he sacrificed himself to save it. At the moment of his mortal end, his essence became an ever-burning flame of raw Power Primate energy which the people kept on a torch to ward off evil spirits and serve as a beacon in honor of his sacrifice,"

He looked over at Chiro "That is what would have happened to Antauri had you not left yourself so open to him that when his essence left his body that you inadvertently drew him within you,"

Chiro looked at him "How do you know about that?"

Mandarin smiled "Not only did he tell me about it, but I can still sense traces of his energy within you. His time within your being left a Bond between you two; I'm guessing that is how you found him so easily in the labs way back when,"

Now that Chiro thought about it, when they were searching for Antauri Chiro felt his fear, he felt his pain, he felt _him_.

The demons brought them to another cemetery, this one had a giant statue made of sticks that had branches coming out the sides of its head, resembling a familiar figure.

The Magistrate and Seferina stood at the feet of the statue as the Magistrate announced. "Demons of Cryptovania, tonight we gather to honor our great lord, The Skeleton King!"

As he spoke, a portal opened up and the Worm's head poked out, much like at Valina's temple in the Savage lands.

Seferina held up her hands and spoke to the Worm with reverence "To you we offer these new victims,"

She gestured to the side where the team saw Eclipse, bound and struggling as they were, with her hands and feet tied to a wooden frame propped up by a rock next to a stone altar.

On the altar lay Antauri, his wrists and ankles tied to the corners of the altar with the same chains he had been bound by before and a gag was in his mouth.

When the others saw them they started shouting their names over the cheers of the crowd.

"Antauri!"

"Eclipse!"

They heard them and looked over. Eclipse was crying and screamed "Mama! Daddy!"

Artemis tried to comfort her daughter as best she could while she doubled her efforts to escape. "It's okay, sweetie, we'll be right there. Just hold on,"

Antauri looked right at Chiro and contacted him through the Power Primate. "_**Chiro, are you and the others alright?"**_

Chiro tried to remember how to speak with the Power Primate aside from distress calls, instead he tried to find the Bond Mandarin mentioned earlier and use that.

Reaching out to Antauri with the Power Primate he felt Antauri's aura and felt it reaching back at him. "_**Antauri, I'm sorry,"**_

"_**Don't be, they had us all fooled,"**_

Chiro almost felt overwhelmed by the silver monkey's benevolence that was tinged with slight betrayal. _** "I'm going to get you off that altar, I promise,"**_

The Magistrate was speaking again "We now have the one thing that can bring life to the Wicker Skeleton, the Mystic Flame of Thanatos!" he held it up and moved it closer to the leg of the statue. "Let the ritual begin!"

The flames ignited the dry wood and engulfed the structure. Once the whole thing was covered, the face lit up and the creature roared as it started to move.

The team continued to struggle. Gibson tried to activate his drills to cut them out but it wasn't working. "I can't activate my drills!"

Dyna looked over at him "These restraints are magical in nature; our powers don't work on them. Oh wait, that's right, you don't believe in magic,"

Nova squirmed and started to feel her tail loosen "Wait, I think I can get my tail free…" she squirmed some more until she could pull her tail out the bottom of her bindings and open the end of it to activate a small rotary saw to cut her ropes with.

Once she was free she started to cut the others loose.

While she did this, Seferina handed something wrapped in a black cloth to the Magistrate who pulled back the covering to reveal an ornate dagger. "And now for the sacrifices,"

He turned towards Eclipse and Antauri. "I really must thank you both; when we discovered outsiders so close to our haunt we were hoping to convince them to help us retrieve the Flame for our ritual but now we have the perfect sacrifices to offer our lord, your purity will surely please him," he tapped the tip of his dagger against his lip. "Now who shall be first? The sweet innocent child?" he looked at Eclipse who looked ready to cry. Then he looked at Antauri, or moreover at Antauri's midsection "Or the purest innocence of all, that of one who has not had a chance to be corrupted,"

He started to take a step towards Antauri, who stared and the knife and started to shake—from fear and the force he was pitting against his restraints. Sure, he had died once already, he wasn't all too thrilled about it but if fate brought him back to Death's door once more he wouldn't have a problem going back on his own.

But in this case he wouldn't be on his own; these fanatical demons were willing to kill him so they could sacrifice his child to the ultimate evil before it even had a chance to live on its own.

Seferina grabbed another dagger "Why decide when we can sacrifice them both at the same time?"

The Magistrate smiled at her "An interesting notion," they stood back to back—Serafina facing Eclipse, the Magistrate faced Antauri—and held the daggers over their heads ready to strike, when they were attacked by two orange and purple blurs.

Mandarin sunk his teeth into the Magistrate's arm and knocked the dagger out of his hand, using momentum to bring the larger demon to the ground.

Artemis grabbed Seferina's knife and kicked her away, sending the she-demon into a nearby tree. When she tried to get back up Artemis threw the knife so that it pinned her by the sleeve of her dress to the tree. The purple Technosimian glared at her with eyes filled with protective rage. "If you touch my daughter I will kill you," she turned to release her daughter, suddenly her usual sweet, motherly self again asking if she was okay while Mandarin set to cutting Antauri free.

As soon as her hands were untied, Eclipse latched on to her mother while her feet were untied and climbed onto her back so Artemis could get back into the fight and help the others who were dealing with the Wicker Skeleton who was trying to stomp on them.

While Mandarin tried to cut the chains off of Antauri with his sword, he noticed the silver monkey was still thrashing around to try to break the chains on his own, making it hard to cut him loose without accidently cutting him.

He grabbed his shoulders and held him—instinct told him to pin him down but that would have done more harm than good. "Antauri, Antauri look at me!"

Antauri looked at him and stopped thrashing, seeing it was only Mandarin, who resumed cutting the chains with his sword. "Are you alright?"

After checking himself for injuries, Antauri nodded and jumped off the altar as soon as he was free. "Thank you,"

Mandarin jerked his thumb at the demonic stick-figure. "Come on the others are hogging all the fun," the two ran to the other side of the clearing to meet the others.

Seferina freed herself from the tree and commanded the giant "Destroy them! Destroy them all!" she cackled like a mad woman while it carried out her orders.

The Wicker Skeleton made it difficult for Chiro and the monkeys to get close so they had to use energy attacks, which unfortunately made it stronger if anything.

Chiro looked at Gibson who still had the book. "Gibson, use the book,"

Dyna looked over at him "How in the Jungle do you still have that thing?"

Gibson looked like he was about to throw the book down on the ground "It was wrapped inside the ropes with me. Honestly, I never should have picked this thing up, you all have been badgering me about it ever since!"

The Wicker Skeleton breathed fire on them, which they dodged but the giant turned its head so the flames were heading towards Mandarin and Antauri.

Chiro saw this and screamed "NO!"

Forge ran over and jumped into the path of the flames to push them out of the way, crying out as he took the blast head on.

Chiro looked back at Gibson "Now, do it now!"

Gibson read aloud "Knick Knock, Knick knock…" he growled to himself, hating that he had to do this. "…Foo foo!"

The creature screamed and held its head as the flames around its body increased and it grew even bigger.

Nova snapped at him "Nice going, Gibson, why don't you give it extra arms while you're at it?"

The Wicker Skeleton sent another, more powerful, blast of fire their way. They dodged it and scattered to draw his fire in different directions. Gibson ended up behind a stand of trees with Chiro.

"Gibson, the only way it's going to work is if you have the power of belief,"

"But it's not logical!" Gibson sounded so exasperated he almost sounded whiny.

Mandarin dodged another energy blast and snarled at his brother from where he ran around the edge of the clearing with Sparx. "Gibson, _Nothing_ about this place is logical, USE THE DAMN BOOK!"

Sparx shot at the Wicker Skeleton with his magnets. The behemoth swung its arm and sent them flying back down the hill.

"Sparx! Mandarin!" Chiro used his Beast form to try to hold the giant off as he grappled with it. "USE. THE. BOOK!"

Gibson frantically flipped through the pages until he found something. "Yes, I believe this one will do," he read aloud "Agama shagama ragita…"

It didn't seem to do anything at first, Chiro's Beast form was starting to flicker. "GIBSON!"

"I'm not through!" he turned the page to find the rest of the spell and continued "…Azei Supuh mumen shaspoi lakata!"

Beams of light shot out of the creature as it reeled from obvious pain, releasing Chiro as it exploded, sending a rain of fire down on everyone. Chiro shielded Gibson from the fire and gave him a thumbs-up "You did it, Gibson, you did it,"

Throughout the clearing everyone was taking cover; Sparx pulled Nova under the alter Antauri had been tied to while everyone else hid behind a tree, which were oddly unaffected by the flames, which pooled together where the Wicker Skeleton previously stood and shot up to drive the Worm back out its portal and disappeared.

Once it was gone, the demon townspeople screamed as dark energy surged out of them and poured into the ground, leaving them as the regular people the team thought they were before.

They all looked around, not knowing where they were or how they got there.

As they slowly became aware of their surroundings, dark energy left the imps just as it had the adults, turning them into human Cryptonanian children. As soon as the parents recognized their children, and vice versa, the two crowds converged for happy reunions all around.

A little girl with curly red hair and a black dress with white lace ran barefoot up to Serafina and the Magistrate. "Mommy, Daddy,"

Seferina fell to her knees and pulled the girl into a hug, tears streaming down her face. "Oh, Luanna, We were so worried about you. What happened? The last thing I remember you didn't come home from school. How did we all get here?"

Chiro walked up to them with a smile "It's a long story…"

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Chiro finished up "…and that's all that has happened since we got here,"

The team had just explained to the people what all had happened since they got there.

The Magistrate rubbed his chin. "Well now, that is quite a tale. Were any of you hurt during your little adventure?"

Chiro looked at the monkeys and the Technosimians, who all shook their heads. "No, just pretty shook up," he turned to Antauri. "Though I'm not sure what happened to Antauri and Eclipse after they were captured,"

Antauri looked up at him "We were locked in a cellar and chained to the wall,"

He looked up at the Magistrate "Your cellar to be exact,"

The Magistrate looked appalled "Oh dear, I hope you weren't treated too poorly while you were there,"

Antauri shook his head "For the most part they just left us down there in shadows, except for when you—err, the demon that possessed you—came down and taunted us with how 'the boy will never escape my trap and I will destroy him and all you monkeys as soon as I have what I want from him,' then he left one of the imps down there with us as he went back to the surface. It attacked Eclipse so I bit it,"

The he realized he just admitted to biting one of the townspeople's children and immediately apologized "I am unsure of who it was but whoever it was I had bitten I am truly sorry,"

The Magistrate kindly held up a hand "Not to worry, my friend, no one seems to be sporting any injuries from our time as demons so there really was no real harm done,"

Gibson held up the book "By the way, I borrowed this from your library. I figured you would want it back,"

The Magistrate smiled and pushed it back towards him "Keep it, from the sounds of things you are getting to be a talented spell caster. This book will be better with you than sitting on a shelf collecting dust,"

Gibson looked at the book and smiled at the Magistrate "Thank you,"

Antauri looked over at Gibson. "Gibson, do you think you could use that book to get us off of this strange world?"

Gibson smiled at him "After today, I believe _anything_ is possible,"

They all said their goodbyes and boarded their respective vessels to take off into the planet's outer atmosphere.

Inside of Fist Rocket 4, Gibson had the book propped up in front of him so he could read while he worked the controls. "Abrah malin zainerah,"

The same portal that transported them there opened up for them and they flew through it with the Technosimians ship in front and the Super Robot following close behind.

Once they were through the portal they ended up in the exact same spot they were in when the Worm transported them all millions of light-years away.

"Okay, we are right back where we started but the Worm has gained a substantial lead. It could be days before we catch up with it," Gibson closed the book and set it aside to put on his bookshelf later.

Chiro checked the watch he wore on his wrist but didn't normally use. "We might be in the same place we were before but we were gone for three days, maybe we should take a rest for a while," No one argued with him but they could hear the Technosimians talking in their ship through the comm. systems.

"Whose turn is it to fly the graveyard shift?"

Forge's voice came on, he sounded like he was tired but he was trying to hide it. "I'll do it,"

Artemis chided him "No, Forge, even before we went after the Worm you worked nonstop on that project of yours for over a day, you _need _rest,"

His tone of voice became firmer. "No more than anyone else here,"

Sparx spoke over the comm. line "Can't you guys put the ship on autopilot?"

Dyna's voice came on next "Yeah we could, but unless we set a direct course the ship will just drift across space, which makes it more likely for us to get lost. Since we don't know where we're actually going it will just do more harm than good,"

Then Chiro got an idea "Can you guys dock your ship with the Super Robot? It's small enough to not slow it down too much and you guys can ride with us,"

The Technosimians discussed it in hushed tones before Artemis' voice came back on "That would be alright with the rest of you, right?" none of them had a problem with it. "In that case, prepare to be boarded,"

Sparx talked them through the docking process so their air lock would line up with a hatch in the Super Robot's side and he could wrap the Robot's right arm around it to keep it from floating away if the magnetic locks failed.

While he was doing that, the others put their stations on autopilot so they could all meet up in the command center. Everyone went to their bubble chairs and sat down tiredly, except for Mandarin who just flopped down on the floor between two chairs.

Nova leaned out of her chair to look at him "Are you okay, Mandarin?"

Mandarin lay on his back with his hands folded over his face. "If I'm not I'm too tried to care,"

Once the ship was docked and its occupants were inside the Robot, they all rode the tubes down to the command center.

Forge looked around "Huh. So this is what the inside of the Robot looks like,"

Once Artemis and Eclipse got there, the little simian immediately spotted her dad and pointed over at him.

Artemis smiled and set her on the ground, whispering in her ear "Okay, go get him,"

Eclipse scampered over to her father while her mother went to talk to the grownups and pounced on him. "Rawr!" But Mandarin didn't move.

Confused, she put her hands on his chest and shook him; nothing happened.

She put her ear on his chest like she had seen her mother do to Dyna or Forge when one of them wouldn't wake up; she heard his heartbeat so he wasn't dead.

Suddenly he sat up and grabbed her "Gotcha!" he blew a raspberry on her stomach and tickled her, inciting shrieks of laugher.

Everyone watched the father-daughter moment with smiles on their faces. Artemis called over in a completely non-threatening tone "Mandarin, if you make her laugh so hard she pees you are the one that gets to clean up the mess,"

Mandarin stopped tickling and licked his lips to get rid of any tingling and saliva from the raspberries. "Sorry," he set her down on the floor.

Eclipse then spotted Antauri and went over to where he was sitting and leaned against the base of his chair. "Hi, Uncle 'Tauri!"

Antauri looked down and saw she was trying to climb up into the chair with him so he put a hand beneath her and boosted her up. "Hello, Eclipse, what brings you over here?"

Eclipse hugged him around the waist "Thank you,"

He looked down at her. "For what?"

She smiled up at him "For scawing the monster away when we unduh the scawy house,"

Antauri smiled and rubbed her back. "You're welcome,"

She started to pull away but then she put her ear on his stomach again. "Eclipse, what are you doing?"

She spoke quietly. "Shh, I'm tryin' to hear the noises,"

He looked at her, puzzled "Noises?"

She nodded against him "Uh huh, it go 'thump-thump, thump-thump' like in here," she pulled back and pointed to her chest. "But in here," she pointed to where her ear just was and put it back there to listen some more.

Antauri thought about what she meant and froze; heartbeat, she was hearing the heartbeat. He slowly moved his hands to cup his sides "I think that's the little one's heartbeat you're hearing,"

Gibson overheard and looked over in disbelief "How can she be hearing the heart beat?"

Artemis looked over at him "Gibson, if I can hear _your _heartbeat from where I'm standing she can hear that heartbeat with her ear right next to the source,"

Gibson gawked at her and covered his chest self-consciously. "That's impossible,"

Sparx came in from double checking the docking locks that held the Technosimian's ship to the Super Robot. "Really Gibson? After everything that happened on that creepy planet you're going to talk about 'impossible'?"

Then he saw the Jack-o-Lantern on the console and got nervous. "Y-you… uh… you actually brought one of those gourd things back with us?"

Chiro smiled at him "Yeah Sparx," he held up his arms like he was trying to scare him and showed some plastic fangs he also got from Cryptovania "I thought we could have a 'Spook day' back on Shuggazoom,"

Otto spun his chair around to face everyone "That would be the best!"

Dyna agreed "I know! You lucky ducks,"

Then they noticed he had a thick book in his lap "Hey is that Gibson's spell book you're reading?"

"Yeah, check out this little remedy for itchy fur," Otto read out loud "Azad bortosa deavac!"

A puff of smoke covered Sparx and when it cleared he had turned into a giant scraggly red rat.

"Eww," Dyna and Nova flinched away from him in disgust while everyone else just stared at him in shock.

The red monkey-turned-rat was completely oblivious to his new appearance. "What? What happened? Did it work?" then he saw Nova and his rat instincts told him she was a piece of cheese.

"Sparx, why are you looking at me like that?"

Sparx couldn't help himself, he just went right over and started licking her, purring as his new instincts and the hallucination they caused spurred him on.

Nova tried to push him away but he held onto her. "Eww, eww, eww, LET ME GO SPARX!"

Forge stepped between them, trying to pry the two apart "Okay, Otto, change him back now,"

Otto found the reverse spell and used it, Forge backed off as soon as the pilot was a monkey again.

Sparx looked at Nova and recognized her, stopping mid-lick but not pulling away—expecting her to knock him away from her.

Strangely, she didn't; she just looked at the way he held her in what was almost an arms' length hug.

Neither of them moved while Artemis took the book away. "Give me that! This isn't a toy, Otto, you don't mess with this kind of thing," she checked the spell he just used. "You pronounced it wrong; it's actually said like this: 'Az-ah-d Bordosa Day-vac',"

Then Sparx shimmered and his fur fluffed up and went back to normal. He ran his hand through it. "Whoa, it's so soft,"

Nova stroked his fur. "You feel like a plushie!"

Artemis started to close the book but then she saw something else in it and started reading. "Oh, this looks interesting,"

"What is it?"

Artemis read for a moment before answering "It's a spell that turn humans into non-humans and back again,"

Otto piped up "So we can turn Chiro into a monkey for a while? Well, not like he was last time but a monkey like us?"

Artemis nodded and tapped the page "It also works both ways so if any of us really wanted to…"

"We can become human?"

Forge held out his hands for the book "Here, allow me to try it out,"

Artemis handed him the book. "Maybe you should step behind something, just in case,"

"Right," he stepped behind one of the bubble chairs and read out loud. "Mak iet nua, Mak iet mana," then there was a poof and a creaking sound like someone cracking their joints. "Whoa, okay, nobody come over here!"

They started to lean around the side of the chair to see but stopped when he told them that. "Did it work?"

A man that appeared to be in his late forties with graying dark hair that had blue streaks in it and gold eyes set in a tanned angular face peered around the side of the chair. "Yeah, it worked. Hey Artemis, good call on stepping behind something, I was supposed to picture myself human with clothes on, they just implied that last part,"

Artemis smiled "Yes, humans tend to be very sensitive about nudity,"

He ducked back behind the chair and said "Mak iet nua, Mak iet mono," then he stepped back around the chair, back to normal.

Nova smiled "At least we know the reverse spell works just fine,"

Forge ducked back behind the chair "Hang on, I'm going to try again, see if I can get it right this time,"

Closing his eyes to focus, he said "Maki et nua, Maki et mana!" he felt the bone chilling fire spread through him as his joints popped and his plating became soft and supple just as it did before but this time instead of merging into his softening outer skin, he felt his fur melt and spread across his body into something else. When he opened his eyes he saw…

The others leaned around the side of the chair again "Did it work?"

They heard Forge chuckle "See for yourselves…"

* * *

...In the next chapter! Muah-hahaha!

_**AN: another chapter come and passed. Seriously, did anyone else notice on the show that the "Mystic" flame of Thanatos was the same color as the Power Primate? Thanatos sounds like someone's name so who's to say there couldn't have been a Mystic named Thanatos?**_

_**Thanks to everyone that read and reviewed; AntauriSigma, Lorrie the Ninja Elf, cheesybeans, kitkatkathy27121993,**_

_**Read and Review, any flames will be used to bring back the Wicker Skeleton to send it on a senseless rampage.**_


	8. Chapter 8

Monkey Doodle

Chapter 8

_**Happy St. Patty's Day Everyone! Here's another chapter for you!**_

Rated T for language, torture, repetitive use of soap in Sparx's mouth and anything else I might have forgot to mention.

Disclaimer: I own nothing except my OC's. If I did own "SRMTHFG!" that creepy Probe thing never would have been in the show (or at least would have had a less creeper-ish face on its screen), this chapter refers to parts of "Ghost in the Machinder"

Guide to talking;

"Talking"

"_**Talking with Power Primate**_"

"_The Probe talking"_

:Comm. links:

'_Thoughts'_

* * *

They all gasped as the tall man from before stepped out; he was about six feet tall and tan all over, wearing a navy blue under-armor turtleneck shirt under a gray vest with gray cargo pants and black combat boots. He held up his arms "Well?"

"Whoa" that was all anyone could say for a moment before Otto bounced up "I wanna try!"

Dyna bounce up behind him "Me next,"

Forge reached over Otto and handed Dyna the book "Sorry, Otto, ladies first,"

"Ah," Otto pouted while Dyna grabbed the book and dove behind the chair.

Forge chuckled at his sister's antics, but then he saw Eclipse trying to hide from him behind Artemis. He stepped closer but she buried her face in her mother's shoulder.

He looked down at her sadly. "Eclipse, it's me, Uncle Forge,"

She looked up at him "Uncle Forge?"

He held out his hand for her to sniff in case she didn't believe him. "You don't look like you, but you smell like you,"

Forge smiled "That's because I'm still me, I just look different because I used something in Gibson's spell book to make me human for a while. I'll go change back as soon as Dyna's done with her turn with the book,"

Just then a trim young woman in her early twenties with green eyes and fiery red hair pulled back in a ponytail stepped out from behind the chair wearing gray daisy dukes with a matching half vest that fastened with a single button in the center of her chest over a red tank top and red leggings tucked into a pair of boots that had a one-inch heel.

Dyna smiled and struck a modeling pose "Well, how do I look?"

Forge took the book and looked up the spell to change him back "Like our sister in a human suit," he found the spell and changed himself back before passing it back to her.

Dyna passed the book to Otto, who kept making grabby hands at it until it was once again in his grasp and went behind the chair to begin his own transformation. "Oh, this is gonna be awesome. I wonder what I'll look like,"

Forge called around the chair "You have to picture what you want to look like or it won't work,"

"Okay. Mak iet nua, mak iet mana," the joint popping noise came back and a young man in his early twenties with blond hair and green eyes standing at around five foot six came bouncing out wearing a green T-shirt that said "I'm strange and I like it!" on the front in white letters with blue jeans and sneakers, his hair was matted and his clothes were stained with oil and grease.

"Hey guys, how do you like me now?" Otto smiled, revealing dimples in his cheeks.

After that everyone was curious and wanted a turn. Chiro nudged Gibson forward "Hey, Gibson, it's your book. Maybe you should go first,"

Gibson looked up at him "But why would I…"

Chiro gave him a knowing smile "I'm sure Minerva would be interested if you were closer to her height,"

Gibson thought about it and simply stated "Give me the book, Otto," he was promptly handed the book as he walked around the chair to try the spell himself.

Otto spotted Chiro and went to stand next to him "Hey Chiro, guess what?"

Chiro looked up at him "What?"

Otto elbowed Chiro in the side. "I'm taller than you!"

Mandarin elbowed him in the knee. "Act your age, Otto,"

Otto regained his balance and scratched his head. "Uh, what's my age again?"

Mandarin counted on his fingers and answered "You, Gibson, Sparx, Nova and Antauri all turn twenty two in a few months. I know this because I turn twenty three the following month and I'm a year older than the rest of you,"

"Thank you for remembering, Mandarin…" they all looked as the chair Gibson hid behind slowly spun around to reveal a raven-haired man the same age and height as Otto's human form with eyes the color of the night sky sitting in it; he had one leg crossed over the other and was looking at them over his fingertips laced together near his face, looking all gangster.

Or at least as "gangster" as a human Gibson can look wearing a blue sweater vest over a white long sleeve shirt with folded cuffs, navy slacks, and grey shoes.

"…but getting Otto to _ever_ act his age has proven to be more and more difficult with each attempt,"

He held up the book. "Who's next?"

Nova went next, when she came out from behind her own chair she was a blond woman with short hair that just went down past her ears and pink eyes that looked like she could be the female lead for a martial arts movie; she had a yellow _GI_ top with yellow capri pants which hung quite nicely on her strong-looking feminine build and black combat boots.

Sparx clamped a hand over his muzzle—both to muffle his response and hide the nosebleed he felt coming on. "Da-ang Nova, you're hot as a chick!"

Nova glared and stood over him growling "Don't make me come down there,"

Sparx looked up at her "No problem…" he snatched the book "'cause now it's my turn!" he ducked behind the chair Gibson had just vacated before she could cuff him across the head and said the spell while she chased him around the chair. "Mak iet nua, Mak iet mana! Holy…"

He had turned a corner and when Nova came around she ran into a twenty-something young man with red hair and dark brown eyes wearing a red shirt under a brown leather bomber jacket that had a fuzzy white collar and tan cargo pants that came over the top of red and white running shoes.

Nova lost her balance but he caught her and smiled Sparx's signature smirk at her. "So, does this mean you're finally falling for me?"

Nova pushed him away and snatched the book so she could change back. "Grow up, Sparx," Once she was back to normal she held up the book "Whose turn is it?"

Sparx leaned against the chair, inwardly enjoying being taller than he was before. "The only ones that haven't gone yet are Mandarin, Antauri and Artemis, and if Chiro and Eclipse want to give it a go they can too,"

Mandarin looked at Antauri, who just stayed sitting in his chair, and at Artemis, like he was asking permission and she nodded. "I'll go,"

He took the book and went behind the chair that was now designated "the changing chair"

"Mak iet nua, Mak iet mana," When he stepped back into view he was a man in his late twenties, or early thirties, with orange hair in a military cut with his orange vest over a white long sleeve shirt and beige pants that were tucked into black boots that went up to his calves. He also was wearing orange gloves that resembled his power gauntlets.

Mandarin examined his new human form. "Hmm, I do not hate this form but even with all these clothes on I still feel naked without my tail," he craned his neck to look behind him before using the book to change back right in front of everyone.

"Okay, Artemis or Antauri, which one of you would like to go next?"

The two looked at each other and Antauri gestured for her to go first. "Ladies first,"

Artemis smiled at him "Thank you,"

Mandarin handed her the book "Here you are, love,"

"Thanks dear," she kissed him on the cheek before taking the book and stepping behind the chair to change into a woman in her early thirties with dark hair that was pulled back and held against her head with a seashell clip wearing gray safari shorts and a purple shirt with gray stockings and hiking boots. "Well, what do you think?"

"In a word…" Mandarin covered Eclipse's ears so she wouldn't hear him talk dirty.

"…DAY-YUM,"

Sparx looked her up and down too. "Yeah, what he said,"

Mandarin glared at Sparx "Don't you look at her like that," he promptly began chasing Sparx—who could gain a good lead because of his longer strides but Mandarin was still fast.

Antauri covered Eclipse's ears with his ghost claws to completely muffle any outside noise as Mandarin started shouting threats of severe bodily harm to anyone who tried anything funny with his mate.

Eclipse tipped her head back to look up at Antauri, who waited patiently until Mandarin managed to herd Sparx over to Nova who tripped him and whacked him on the back of his head.

"I think it's time for you to change back now,"

Sparx rubbed his head, the hit hurt more since he didn't have a helmet on "I think your right,"

Artemis changed back and handed the book to Sparx so he could change back. "Ok, Antauri, your turn,"

Antauri handed Eclipse to her mother and took the book behind the "changing chair,"

"Mak iet nua, Mak iet mana," he felt the fire course through him but he wasn't too worried, it felt just like fazing through something in his ghost mode.

When he was done he stepped out from behind the chair. The others stared as a tall man with dark hair and ice blue eyes came out wearing a black suede jacket zipped halfway over a gray t-shirt with blue jeans and gray shoes.

Chiro gave him a thumbs-up "Looking good Antauri,"

Then Otto noticed something "Hey, you look kind of like Chiro except, you know, older."

The others looked between the two who just stared at each other; same eyes, same hair, they even had the exact same skin tone and shared some of the same facial features.

Sparx looked over at Antauri "Hey Otto's right, if we didn't know any better, Antauri's human form could have been the kid's father or something,"

It got deadly quiet after that, Chiro looked at the ground so his eyes were hidden by his bangs and walked out of the room.

The monkeys watched him go, wanting to stop him but unsure what to say. As soon as he was gone, the rest of the monkey team glared at Sparx.

"That was really uncalled for, Sparx," Nova brought her fist down on Sparx's head.

The red monkey rubbed his head "I know, I know, I wasn't thinking when I said that,"

Mandarin and the Technosimians were confused. "What's going on?"

Gibson looked over at them sadly "Chiro lost his parents when he was really young, the day he found us he was running away from the orphanage he was staying at because it's harder for teenagers to find adoptive parents,"

The four of them gasped. Artemis' motherly instincts screamed at her to go find the boy, give him a hug and make sure he was alright. "I'm sorry, we didn't know,"

Antauri changed back to normal and started to walk out of the room after the boy. "I'll go talk to him,"

Sparx walked behind him. "I'll, uh… I'll come with you,"

Antauri looked over his shoulder "Of course, _I _am not the one that owes Chiro an apology,"

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Sparx and Antauri stood outside Chiro's room, thinking that would be the first place he'd go.

Sparx knocked on the door "Hey, kid you in there?" No response. Sparx shrugged "Maybe he's not in there,"

Antauri looked up at the door "No, I sense he is in his room,"

"Then he's ignoring us. Come on, he'll come out when he's ready to talk," Sparx started to walk away but Antauri stopped him.

"Wait," Antauri's ear opened up into a cone shaped listening devise which he put against the door "I hear music playing. He must not hear us,"

Letting his ear return to normal, Antauri manually opened the door and went in with Sparx filing in behind him.

Chiro lay on his bed in his normal clothes with his headphones on playing music from a really old media player that was on the bed next to him. He was staring at the ceiling lost in his thoughts when he felt something touch his arm, making him jump.

He calmed down when he saw it was Antauri and that Sparx was hanging back by the door. Chiro sat up and put his headphones away. "He guys, what's up?"

Antauri looked him in the eye with a "Young-man-I'm worried-about-you-so-don't-lie-to-me" look. "Chiro, Are you alright?"

Chiro put his fingers together and looked out the corner of his eyes "Yeah why?"

There it was, Chiro's "tell". He wasn't alright and he was hiding it.

Sparx rubbed the back of his head "Uh, sorry about what I said, Chiro. I didn't mean anything by it, honest,"

Chiro looked at him and smiled "Don't worry about it, Sparx. I know you didn't mean anything by it, I just…" Chiro let his sentence trail off and looked at a spot at the edge of the bed.

Antauri went over to sit on the edge of his bed like he did sometimes when Chiro had nightmares. "Chiro, I…"

They were interrupted when the room rocked violently. "Whoa, what was that?"

The three of them ran to the command center where the rest of the team was frantically working at the controls while Artemis and her team ran for the hatch connecting to their ship.

Chiro changed back into his Hyperforce uniform and went right back into "leader mode" "What's going on?"

Nova looked up at them when she saw them come in. "We're veering off course, Artemis and her team is going to detach from the Super Robot's side to see if that will help,"

Sparx went over and worked the controls to move the Super Robots arm out of the way so the smaller ship could detach, but it didn't do any good. Even with the loss of the added weight they were still changing direction.

Gibson worked the Robot's main flight controls but nothing happened "Strange, the Super Robot's not responding,"

A corner of the screen opened up to show the Technosimians at their stations. Artemis spoke first "What's going on over there?"

Gibson looked up at her "I'm not entirely sure,"

Chiro leaned on the console "Let's check out the navigations system, maybe it's down,"

"Okay, want us to fly alongside until you guys figure out what's going on?"

Sparx reversed what he did with the controls to move the Super Robots arm "No, now that we know it wasn't you guys putting us off course you can come back over if you want,"

"Okay," they pulled over to re-dock against the Robots side and locked into position.

Nothing Sparx did worked until they were back in position for the Super Robot to wrap its arm around the smaller ship like it was holding a toy. "Hey, the arm works!"

Nova looked over at the controls "Uh, Sparx… nothing happened until you let go of the controls,"

They all looked over at the console he had just stepped away from and stared at it until the Technosimians came back in.

Otto started walking to the engine room "Come on, let's go see what's bugging the Robot,"

Dyna looked over at him "Need any help?"

Otto smiled at her "Okay,"

Artemis followed them both out "I'll help too,"

"And I as well," Gibson and the others followed Otto to the engine room where the two mechanics and the two scientists ran every sort of diagnostic they could think of but could only come to one conclusion.

Otto stood up and wiped some grease off his forehead "Well, it's not the computers. You're not going to believe this but the Super Robot is overriding our commands,"

Chiro looked up at the wires and power conduits that what glowing red, providing the only light in the dark room. "You're saying it's… thinking for itself?"

"Perhaps there is more to the Robot than meets the eye,"

Sparx looked over at Antauri. "You've got to be kidding me, Antauri. I mean, it's a machine, it's probably just broken,"

Gibson nodded "Agreed, technically speaking machines can only appear to be alive,"

Antauri narrowed his eyes. "Appearances can be deceiving,"

Gibson caught the hint Antauri was _really _trying to give and tried to apologize but Sparx, poor oblivious Sparx, missed it completely and cut him off "Uh, What you see is what you get. Machines can't have a soul,"

Antauri crossed his arms and frowned at Sparx. "Oh really?"

Mandarin whispered in Artemis' ear and she reached into the compartment in her helmet and pulled out a small piece of soap. Mandarin took it and shoved it in Sparx's mouth. "Boy, your mouth seems to be getting you in a lot of trouble today, isn't it?"

Just then the alarm went off and everyone ran back to the control center.

Mandarin hung back and stepped back into the engine room looking up at the glowing conduits. "I know you can hear me, old friend. I'm sure they didn't mean what they said," he waited for a moment like waiting for an answer. Up in the top corner, a couple of the conduits flashed up and down, almost like a nod.

Smiling, Mandarin stepped up to the door. "Don't worry, I'll get whatever my clone did to you fixed, I promise," Mandarin closed the door behind him and ran to catch up to the others.

In the command center, they saw on the visual screen what appeared to be a black and green ship shaped like some sort of gigantic insect.

"What is that?"

Otto spotted a panel on the thing's "face" sliding back to reveal a glowing light "I don't know but it's gearing up to fire!"

An aqua colored beam shot up and enveloped the Super Robot and the Technosimian's ship and pulled them closer to it.

"It's got us in a tractor beam!"

Once Otto managed to stabilize the Robot they got a better look at it.

"What is that thing, Gibson?" Nova looked at the blue scientist who was checking their scanners.

"Life signs read negative, so I would theorize that it is some type of automated craft. It may believe us hostile,"

Sparx looked over at Gibson "Us hostile? That thing looks like some kind of terminating death droid bent on blowing up the cosmos!"

Antauri stepped between them "Don't jump to conclusions Sparx. Perhaps we should attempt to communicate,"

Sparx looked over at Antauri and dead panned "What do you want to do, make friends with it?"

Chiro got on the comm. system and tried every frequency he could find "Attention automated exploration craft: We are the Super Robot Hyperforce. We are not your enemy,"

Artemis pulled the speaker down to where she can talk to it. "This is Alpha Artemis of the Tec'jangaru fleet squad twenty six, we also are not your enemy,"

The screen flickered and a green humanoid face with wide unblinking eyes and an eerie smile that somewhat resembled that of a clown appeared on a black background and spoke in a monotone voice "Greetings Hyperforce and Squad twenty six, I am VX808 modular computer tracking probe from the Talus star system,"

Dyna whispered "Let's just call it 'The Probe' for short,"

Gibson asked The Probe directly "Why do you have your tractor beam locked onto us?"

"Because you are from the planet 'Shuggazoom', of course,"

Nova put her hands on her hips "What is that supposed to mean?"

Forge spoke up "Excuse me, Mr. Probe, sir? Not all of us here are from Shuggazoom and with all due respect I don't see how that alone excuses plucking people up in tractor beams like this,"

The Probe said nothing as it pulled them inside through multiple sliding panels that moved aside for them, creating a ripple effect.

Otto watched everything literally unfold before them "Wow, this is pretty neat. I've never seen meso-technology like this before,"

Dyna came up to stand by him "I know, this would be so cool if we weren't being captured by it!"

Looking out into the cavern that just opened up beneath them, both teams saw what appeared to be the Probe's internal systems; amongst all the stationary and moving parts there were insectoid repair drones scuttling about to keep up with regular maintenance.

As they went further inside, Nova spotted something they hadn't seen in a long time, Skeleton King's TV Monster. "Is that what I think it is?"

Chiro saw it too "It's Skeleton King's droid, TV Monster. The Probe must have picked it up along the way,"

The Super Robot came to a stop in another cavern, this one was solid green with glowing green power conduits covering the walls and converging with a giant green orb that had smaller orbs branching off of it. Set in the middle of the main orb was a round screen depicting the green face from before.

The Probe spoke again. "Allow me to clarify why you are here. I am the last survivor of an advanced race of mechanical life,"

Otto spoke up "You mean your people are all machines?"

"Correct. _Were _machines, but no longer. An undead entity from your world has destroyed our planet,"

Antauri knew right away who he was talking about "Skeleton King. We were tracking him down when you intercepted us,"

The Probe spoke louder, with conviction "As I am intercepting everything that comes from Shuggazoom… and neutralizing it,"

None of them liked the sound of that "But we're after Skeleton King too!"

The Probe continued "All organic life that has come into contact with Skeleton King is corrupt and must be eliminated,"

Just then, several thick cables with metallic claws came out of the walls and grabbed onto the Robot's arms, lifting it off of the ground while another pulled the Technosimian's ship off of it and dropped it on the ground.

Chiro directed the monkeys to the tubes "Everyone to their posts, Hyperforce Go!" he looked at the Technosimians, who were looking at the place their ship had fallen on the screen. "You guys better strap in, we'll try to get your ship back when this is over," They all sat in the chairs and buckled in—Artemis sat in Chiro's with Eclipse in her lap, Forge sat in Nova's and Dyna sat in Otto's—while Chiro and the monkey team went to their stations and Mandarin went to his now usual spot by the control center console.

Once everyone was in position they put everything they had into breaking free but more cables kept coming after them and the Probe's computer brain was able to fire back when fired upon. Eventually, the cables wrapped around the Robot's limbs and head and held it still so the Probe could hack into its systems and cut a hole in its armor.

When the opening was big enough, smaller metal tentacles reached in and fished everyone out of the Robot. Once everyone was out, more cables grabbed on to the Robot and pulled it apart with a sparking "_CREEE-UUUNNCH!" _and carried the pieces out of sight in different directions.

"The Robot, NO!"

The two teams were placed on what appeared to be a giant microscope and were held in place until they were hit with some kind of ray that created a giant plastic slide around them that kept everyone still while the microscope scanned them.

Chiro found he was still able to move his eyes and tried to look around but had to shut them when the scanner's beam passed over him "What is this? What are you doing?"

The Probe looked through the lens as the machine scanned each of them. "_Discovering what you are, Flesh Entity_," After looking at most of the monkeys and Chiro "_Robotic simians are interesting but virtually useless, much the same for the Flesh Entity. You will all be disposed of,"_ then he came to Antauri last and saw his body was completely robotic.

The Probe released them and dropped them down a shaft that opened up beneath them and caught Antauri in a clamp as he fell and scanned him again. "_You, one called 'Antauri', are the exception. You are 100% machine, aside from a few organic anomalies you appear to have grafted into your body. Once those are removed you may be of some use to me,_"

Chiro looked around and saw Antauri being pulled back out of the shaft while they were falling further down it. "_**ANTAURI!"**_

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After sliding down the shaft for several minutes the two teams landed in a chamber full of scrap metal and other rubbish.

Otto pinched his nose as he got up "What's that smell?"

Chiro climbed out from behind a small pile of random junk. "Where are we?"

Forge pushed a thick piece of metal beam off of himself and went to help Dyna out of a hole in the pile she had fallen into "My guess is we are in the Probe's waste disposal unit,"

Gibson sniffed the air as everyone met in the center of the chamber "I concur with Dyna's statement,"

Nova looked around "Oh, great, we're gonna get trashed!"

A screen showing the Probe's face came down from the ceiling. _"Not trashed, recycled into organic fuel. But please remain calm, I will assimilate your more useful robotic parts,"_

Sparx saw an empty fuel tank on the ground next to him and used his magnets to pick it up. "I got something you can assimilate, you freaky probe," he threw it at the screen but it just bounced off.

"_Indeed, Goodbye Flesh Entities"_ the screen went back up into the ceiling.

Out of sheer desperation, Otto, Dyna and Forge all attacked the sides of the chamber with their weapons but nothing worked so they just slid down the wall.

"Trash can is invulnerable, I can't cut through,"

Forge felt along the wall "Nothing is really invulnerable, Otto, we've just got to find a spot where the metal is weaker than the rest of it,"

Worried about Antauri, Nova mused aloud, "If only Antauri were here,"

Hearing what she said, Sparx suddenly got angry at the silver monkey and started to snap at Nova for it. "He didn't put up much of a fight. He's probably pals with that Probe by now,"

Forge pushed off the wall and walked right up to Sparx, steam practically rolling off his body. "Now you see here, you… you…" he looked around at everyone else "Chiro, Otto, ladies, please cover your ears; I don't curse in front of children or ladies but there's a chance I might let something slip getting after this little trash-mouth,"

Nova crossed her arms "I thought you said all of us were children compared to you?"

Forge slumped, his earlier irritation gone for the time being. "Hundred and four,"

They all looked at him confused. "Huh?"

He looked over at Nova with a shy smile. "When I said that you asked how old I was. I am one hundred and four years old. Our kind is long-lived so I'm not all _that _old but I'm much older than the rest of you."

He turned back to Sparx "You, you little red whelp, have no right to say such things about other people when you don't know the whole story. For all we know he did try to fight back but was unable to do so,"

Chiro nodded "Forge is right, this is Antauri we're talking about here. He wouldn't sell us out like that," then he got weird look on his face.

"Chiro, what is it?"

Chiro started to feel what he was feeling when Ma'lone had Antauri in the labs and had a wild guess what it meant. "We need to get out of here now!"

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_In the Probe's main chamber_

Antauri fought against the vise he was held in as a cable was plugged into the outlet port on the back of his head. "LET. ME. GO!" he snarled.

The Probe brought more cables and other devises out and surrounded Antauri with them "_Struggle is futile, Antauri. Your fazing ability has been nullified and your powers deactivated,"_

Antauri looked up at the screen and shouted "Release my friends, Skeleton King is our enemy as well,"

"_Logic dictates that you will say anything to save your friends from destruction, and I must destroy all organic life,"_

Again, Antauri tried to reason with it. "Don't you see? By destroying organic life you are becoming what you hate the most; Skeleton King,"

The screen flickered with static "_Skeleton King… SYSTEM ERROR! SYSTEM ERROR!"_

That's when it dawned on Antauri "You've been infected with some sort of virus, _your _system has been corrupted by TV Monster,"

"_Preposterous, TV Monster has been deactivated. See for yourself,"_

The droid was brought in and Antauri saw the screen in its chest was obviously still lit. "No, it still lives!"

"_Don't be a fool, machines do not live. We are servants of our programming and yours is flawed. You obviously require further examination,"_

Antauri continued to struggle as more cables were plugged into the side of the vise and he felt a slight crackle of electricity. "NO!"

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_Meanwhile, back in the trash unit_

Chiro and the others were banging on the walls, trying to find a spot that might be easier to break through when they heard something moving around amongst the rubbish and readied themselves for a fight.

Out of the pile came a tiny white and blue robot that pulled itself out with its blue arms that could reach the floor if it held them straight and rolled up to them on its treaded feet speaking in a high-pitched friendly voice "Oh, at last I have some company. I have been missing conversation,"

They all relaxed and Chiro responded with an equally friendly tone. "Okay, but we actually need to get out of here. Do you know a way?"

The little robot nodded excitedly "Indeed I do…" then he appeared sad, even though his face couldn't change expression. "…But you're not going to like it,"

Just then, a giant fan on the far wall started turning, the suction brought on by the spinning blades drew various small items towards it; including the little white and blue robot that was talking to them. They all looked away and Artemis covered Eclipse's eyes while the friendly little bot screamed as it was ripped apart by the spinning blades. After a few minutes they could hear its cheers echoing in the shaft just beyond the fan "I'M FREE! I'M FREE!"

They all uncovered their eyes. "Well isn't this just great, either we get sliced and diced by that fan or we go kamikaze to get out of here by jumping through it and hoping there's enough left of us for parts. Great choices we got here,"

Artemis took out another small piece of soap and shoved it in Sparx mouth. "Not now Sparx,"

They all ran from the fans to try to find a way to escape them. "Otto, contact Antauri!"

Otto activated his long range communicator to do as Chiro told him but only got static. "He's not responding,"

Mandarin tried to locate him with the Power Primate but he felt a barrier around where Antauri's Power Primate should have been. "I'm not getting anything either, something is preventing me from reaching him with the Power Primate,"

Sparx finally managed to get the soap Artemis had wedged between his teeth out of his mouth and dropped it on the ground. "Don't you get it? He's gone, he's probably joined up with the Probe,"

Forge looked over his shoulder as he ran further ahead with Artemis and Dyna. "Sparx, I like you and all but one more negative comment and I'm tripping you!"

Otto was still trying to get a signal and he managed to find one, it was faint but somewhat familiar "Wait, I'm getting a response but it's not Antauri…" he sent a hail and got an identification ping back. Otto gasped "Jumping gigawatts, it's from the Super Robot!"

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The Super Robot's pieces had been brought to the first chamber they went through when they were brought aboard the Probe's ship body and dropped unceremoniously in a broken heap. But as it lay there, it was still active, trying to renew the connections that held its body together until it could quite literally pull itself together.

It sensed Otto trying to contact Antauri and knew it wouldn't work, it had been trying to call the silver monkey itself and knew he wouldn't respond so it sent a response ping and managed to regain control of its hands so it could reattach those along with its legs and head.

Once it was back in one piece, the Super Robot set out to rescue its team mates.

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The Probe connected a few more cables and wires to the outside of the clamp to replace the ones he just pulled out and slowly opened the clamp to expose Antauri to various instruments that were held in front of him.

Antauri saw this as his chance to escape but was thwarted the fact that the electric charge from earlier was to magnetize him to the metal clamp so he couldn't pull away, but he still struggled.

The Probe suddenly stopped and brought up a screen that showed the Super Robot getting up. "_Interesting, the machine has revitalized itself,"_

Antauri sneered up at the screen showing the Probe's face "Mark my words… the Super Robot will stop you,"

"_Even if your machine were to get past my drones I still have other defenses against it. In the meantime I will begin to assimilate your knowledge into my core processor," _The Probe ran another scan on Antauri's body "_You seem to have an organic anomaly manifesting within you, I will have to remove that before you can be properly assimilated_,"

Antauri's eyes widened when he realized what the Probe was referring to. "No, no please," he resumed struggling but it didn't seem to be doing any good.

"_Struggle is futile, you will be assimilated,"_

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The Probe sent a screen to appear in front of the Robot. "_So, you have developed a will. A will which shall soon be broken," _The screens disappeared and four spiderlike drones dropped down from the ceiling and begun firing on the Robot as they scuttled around it.

The Robot shielded itself with an energy shield and released four floating orbs that were lined with flare guns along the sides out of its shoulders.

The orbs circled around the drones and opened fire on them, eradicating them in seconds.

Somewhere below where the Robot was fighting, the teams had made it to the far side of the trash compactor and were trying to stay as far away from the pull of the fan as they could.

The screen showing the Probe's face dropped down from the ceiling again. "_Organics, your machines are resisting me. Perhaps you wish to witness their destruction," _

The image on the screen changed to show the Super Robot walking around like it was looking for something, being flanked by the floating orbs that shot at any drones that tried to attack it.

Otto spotted the orbs and knew he didn't install them. "I didn't even know the Super Robot had those things,"

"Me neither,"

Dyna had her eyes glued to the screen. "Yeah, but you also didn't know it could think for itself or move on its own,"

They all watched as the Robot took out the drones but was beaten into the ground when a much larger drone that was several times bigger than itself came out and smacked it around with its wrecking ball hands and spiked it to the ground like a volleyball.

In the trash compacter, the two teams pressed against the wall as the last bits of garbage were pulled into the fan. Soon all that was left was the meager little pile they were standing on and once that was pulled out from under them the wall started to move, pushing them towards the fan.

The Probe's visage reappeared on the screen which had gone dark when the Super Robot was fighting the larger drone. "_There is no need to fight for survival. Your Robot vessel is finished…"_

To prove it, the screen showed the Super Robot on the ground, unmoving and its eyes dark.

"Oh no!"

"… _and your mechanical companion is soon to be assimilated…"_

It showed Antauri, strapped down and covered in wires and clamps. He looked at the screen in the chamber with him that showed them and he looked at them weakly. "I'm… so sorry…"

Then a cutting torch was brought on screen. "…_As soon as I remove the organic anomaly manifesting within his robotic body,"_

Antauri saw the cutting torch and struggled with renewed panic. "NO!"

The others watched with horror.

Mandarin snarled at the Probe "Leave him alone!"

Sparx, seeing he was wrong to have doubted Antauri before, shook his fist at it. "Yeah, leave alone you freak!"

The Probe ignored them. "_Soon he will be a part of me, as will you all!"_

'_One last hope,'_ Chiro activated his Beast Form and tried to hold the wall back by pressing on the frame around the fan and bracing himself against it, but he soon ran out of energy and lost his focus, falling to the ground next to the monkey team and the Technosimians.

"Chiro!" the monkeys all gathered around him to make sure he was alright and helped him up.

Just when all hope seemed lost, the Super Robot activated a cannon on its back that was able to extend until it could reach the bigger drone's head and blasted it off with a high powered energy beam.

The Probe noticed this turn of events and stilled the instruments he was about to use on Antauri, including the torch. "_What, how is this possible?"_

The Super Robot then removed one of the drone's arms and dropped it on the ground so it could reach into the drone's chest and tear out its fuel pump, crushing it in its hand before flying off as the behemoth fell to find the others.

In the trash compacter, Chiro, the monkey's and the Technosimians looked up at the fan as it loomed over them, promising a quick but painful end.

Dyna looked up and saw how all the gears and turbines worked together to make the lethal thing work. "We survive the end of everything we once knew, to be taken out by a garbage disposal… that sucks,"

Mandarin and Artemis held each other with their foreheads pressed together Eclipse held between them, saying a silent goodbye to each other.

Sparx decided he had a few things he needed to get off his chest before he bit it.

He turned to Gibson "Gibson, I'm sorry about all the mean things I've ever said to you… well most of them anyway,"

Gibson nodded "Likewise, my friend,"

He looked over at Forge. "Forge, I'm sorry for making you mad like that before, I don't know what I was thinking when I said that,"

Forge smiled. "I'm actually not that angry at you anymore. If we live through this, though, you might want to apologize to Antauri, he was the one you were insulting,"

Sparx turned to Nova. "And Nova, I…"

Nova looked up at him, looking like she was about to cry but she wanted to be strong and was holding it back.

That was one of the many things he liked about her, now all he had to do was _tell_ her. "I-I…" he tried to make the words come out but he was so nervous he was starting to sweat. "What I'm trying to say is… I…"

Then there was an explosion overhead and when they looked up they saw the Super Robot reaching down through a hole in the ceiling.

"Are we glad to see you!"

The Robot picked them all up in its hand and started to lift them out of the hole but Sparx and Mandarin took off with their rocket packs and flew out of the opening.

Nova and Artemis looked up and saw the boys flying away.

"Sparx, Get back here!"

"Mandarin, where are you going?"

The two didn't hear them, they were already out and flying towards the Probe's brain computer.

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The Probe put Antauri into shutdown so he could pry his helmet off, revealing his robotic brain underneath. "_There must be a way to stop that Robot! The secret must reside in your mechanical brain. I will find that secret and remove it!"_

Just as the Probe was about to insert a needle tipped device into Antauri's brain, Sparx and Mandarin burst through the screen that was projecting the Probe's face.

"LET HIM GO!" Sparx demagnetized the vice so Mandarin could cut away the restraints with his sword and remove all the wires and cables attached to Antauri, including the one in the outlet on the back of his head that prevented him from using his powers.

The removal of the wires caused Antauri's systems to reboot themselves and he used his telekinetic abilities to summon his helmet to him and snapped it back into place.

"_Interlopers!"_ the Probe shot missiles at them and managed to hit Sparx, knocking him unconscious and causing him to fall into a cluster of wires.

Mandarin and Antauri flew down after him; Antauri slashed some of the wires with his ghost claws for good measure.

"_SYSTEM CRASH EMMINENT! SYSTEM CRASH EMMINENT! _..." the warning blared repeatedly while Mandarin and Antauri grabbed Sparx out of the wires.

"Where to now?"

Mandarin saw the Technosimians' ship on the ground below them. "Let's take the ship, we'll get out of here faster and we did promise we'd get it back,"

Antauri nodded and the two carried Sparx down to it, dodging falling debris. Once they made it to the air lock, Mandarin let them in and went to the helm while Antauri strapped Sparx into one of the seats before sitting in other. "Mandarin, are you sure you are able to pilot this craft?"

Mandarin strapped himself in and worked the controls to get them off the ground. "Yes, Artemis and Dyna both showed me how,"

"Are you _sure_ you're up for this?"

Recognizing where he heard similar questions before, Mandarin looked over at Antauri who was strapping himself in. "Oh no, don't _you _start,"

Antauri grinned at him "I was just checking,"

The ship took off and flew over the brain, which launched missiles at it, only for the missiles to be blocked by the Super Robot's hand as it came in and tucked the ship under its arm like a football and flew out of there.

While it flew, the Probe's brain ejected from the ship, raising another alarm.

Dyna looked over at one of the Super Robot's monitors "Crap, that thing activated the self-destruct, we've got only a few seconds before this whole place blows!"

Forge looked over at her. "Dyna, language,"

Dyna looked at him "Is this really the time to be all 'southern gentleman', Forge?"

Forge smiled "I'm always 'all southern gentleman', you're just mad there's an impressive explosion behind us and you didn't cause it,"

"Yeah, yeah, I know… and you're damn right I am!"

The Super Robot flew as fast as it could to outrun the flames of the explosion.

Nova looked at the rearview screen "It's gaining on us…."

Gibson checked the Robot's stats "Systems' shut down eminent, we're overheating!"

The Super Robot rocketed out of the door they had come in just as the Probe ship hit critical and exploded, pieces of flying debris hitting it and knocking the Technosimians' ship out of its grasp but it caught it and flew away, wanting to get as much distance between them and the Probe as possible.

Once the ship was docked with the hatch in the Super Robot's side again, Mandarin and Antauri disembarked, carrying Sparx between them. Although it was actually Mandarin doing most of the carrying, Antauri could barely walk himself.

The team saw them and ran over to see if they were alright. Antauri started to feel dizzy and needed to sit down. He started to take slow steps towards his chair, relieved the whole ordeal was over. "The Probe… is… finished,"

He lost his balance and collapsed. Otto caught him before he hit the floor but Antauri flinched slightly. Thinking it was because of what he had just been through, Otto adjusted his grip on his brother. "Don't worry, Antauri, I gotcha,"

Now that he knew for sure he was safe and this wasn't some trick being played by the Probe while he was in his head, Antauri relaxed into his brother's grip as he was dragged into the medical lab along with Sparx, who had been passed over to Gibson.

Artemis stepped up to Gibson "Do you need any help?"

Gibson looked at his two patients and back at her "Yes, please,"

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In the labs, Artemis and Gibson hooked both Sparx and Antauri to fluid drips to keep them hydrated to prevent them from going into shock while they were out cold.

Once he saw his brothers were in good hands Otto decided to take his leave. "I'm going to go see if I can find out how the Super Robot was able to do all that stuff on its own like that,"

"Alright, be careful,"

Artemis was checking the I.V. drips while Gibson was checking the monitors that were keeping track of Sparx and Antauri's vital signs when Chiro and Nova came in.

Nova looked at the two prone monkeys on the beds "Are they going to be okay?"

Artemis looked up from pressing the tape on Sparx's arm that was holding his I.V. in place. "Sparx is going to be just fine. We're just waiting for him to wake up and giving him some fluids in the meantime,"

Chiro looked over at Antauri "What about Antauri?"

Gibson rummaged in a cabinet for something "Physically he should be fine, but if he keeps getting captured like this I'm going to start worrying about his mental state. There are a few more tests I want to run but I want to talk to him about it first so he knows what's going on so I'll just have to wait until he wakes up,"

"Uh, Gibson…"

Gibson gripped the doors of the cupboard and slumped "He just woke up, didn't he?"

He turned around to see Antauri sitting up on the examination table pulling the tape off his body.

"No, don't do that," Gibson went over and put the tape back into place. "That holds the heart rate monitors in place,"

Antauri looked down at himself; the wires from the monitor were connected to a plastic disc that was taped to his chest. He looked up at Gibson, confused "Gibson, you know I don't have an actual heart anymore,"

Gibson pressed the devise more firmly on his chest "Yes, I know, this one monitors your robotic systems. This one…"he pulled back the sheet that was partly covering Antauri to reveal a similar devise taped to his stomach "… is an actual heart rate monitor,"

Antauri looked at the devise and up at the screen that showed his vital signs, in the corner of the screen was another set of vitals; heart and respiratory rates, core temperature, the works.

"Is that…" then he noticed the pattern and got worried "Is it supposed to be that fast?"

Gibson nodded "Yes, it is supposed to be fast but there is something else… amiss about it. I have a theory as to what it might be but I was going to wait until you were awake before I looked into it further," he held up a scanner attachment he had dug out of the cabinet. "With your permission?"

Antauri nodded. "Proceed,"

Gibson plugged the cable for the scanner into a monitor and got out a tube of gel. "Alright, Antauri, just lie back and try to relax, I am going to apply this gel so the scanners pro-I mean…"

"It's alright, Gibson, 'probe' is not a bad word,"

Gibson shook himself "Right, sorry, this will make the scanner easier to move around on your body while I take an in depth scan. Just lie back and try to relax, I will be finished shortly,"

Antauri lay back and closed his eyes, reaching for state of calm he finds when he meditates while Gibson started to put a hand on him.

"WATCH OUT HE'S GONNA DISECT YOU!"

Antauri quickly sat up and pushed Gibson's head down and through the table, partially fazing him through so his face came out the bottom.

"Sparx!" Nova glared at the red monkey, who was now holding his sides from laughing so hard. "That wasn't funny!"

Sparx paused for air "Oh, yes it was,"

Nova cuffed him across the head and he stopped laughing completely.

Gibson tried to pull himself out of the table but it didn't work "Could someone please get me out of here?"

Antauri pulled Gibson back out of the table's surface. "I am so sorry, Gibson,"

Gibson rubbed his head to make sure everything was where it should be "Oh, no harm done. Now then, about that scan," he held up the tube of gel. "I'm just going to rub this on you so the scanner can hopefully pick up whatever is causing the anomaly in heart rate,"

Then Artemis recognized the scanner he was using. "Gibson, would it be possible for you to bring up a visual of the scan,"

Gibson squirted the gel onto Antauri, who winced at the coldness but didn't move. "If the scanners can find anything I'm sure I can bring up the visual on the monitor," He set down the tube and picked up the scanner and rubbed the ball on the end of it around in the gel. "Now let's see what we have here," he turned a mobile monitor towards him so he could see what he was doing.

After a few minutes he smiled. "Hmm, it would appear my theory was correct,"

Antauri craned his neck to try to see while the others—besides Sparx, who was still on the other bed.—went over to see what was on the screen. "Gibson, what is it?"

Gibson turned the screen so everyone could see; on the screen was a dark blue background with faint light blue shapes outlined in the middle. "There's not much to see yet but if you look closely…"he traced a small oval. "Here's a little head…" and ran his finger down an arch that branched off of it. "…And here is the outline of the makings of a body,"

Antauri stared at the screen. '_There it is…_'

Gibson moved the scanner to the other side. "And if you would look over here…"

'…_wait, what?'_

The picture changed and they saw another little oval with a little arch branching off of it. "…You will see another little head and another little body," he traced each with his finger on the screen which everyone stared at.

Antauri looked over at Gibson "Two?"

Gibson nodded "Yes that would explain the heartbeat sounded unusual; we were hearing more than one heartbeat. You're having twins, Antauri,"

Sparx folded his arms behind his head and fell back against the bed. "Whoa, _twins_? That's gonna hurt,"

Artemis looked over at him. "You know, the only reason you were in here was because we were waiting for you to wake up, now that you've regained consciousness you can leave anytime now,"

Sparx saw what she was getting at and started to slowly peel the tape off of him. "Right, let me just get this off…"

Nova and Artemis each took a side and swiftly ripped the tape off of him.

"YEE-OW!" Sparx's eyes watered as he checked to make sure he still had some fur on him.

Artemis took the tape and threw it in the trash "Sorry, but it's better if you pull it off fast than if you peeled it back little by little like you were doing,"

Nova pulled the whimpering red monkey off the bed and helped him out the door "Come on, you big baby, let's go see what everyone else is doing.

After the door closed behind the Chiro looked at the remaining three monkeys in the room "I didn't even know monkeys could have twins,"

Gibson set the scanner down and wiped the gel off of Antauri with a towel. "Well, technically speaking, since monkeys are so closely related to humans we are just as capable of having twins as humans are, it is just incredibly rare. Also, now that I think about it, whatever Ma'lone did to artificially impregnate Antauri sounds more like artificial insemination which is said to produce multiples more often than not, and since he was, after all, planning breeding an army out of him—and Nova if he ever caught her as well—it would make sense for him to try for as many as he could at one time,"

Artemis clenched her fists and hissed "The more I hear about this "Ma'lone" the more I want to hunt him down and give him a piece of my mind,"

Antauri looked at the screen for a little longer then turned to look at Chiro who seemed to have his eyes glued to it. He looked over at Artemis and Gibson "You think you two could…" he looked back at Chiro pointedly and tipped his head towards the door when he looked back at them.

They both took the hint and left as soon as the last of the gel was wiped off and they both put everything away, Leaving Antauri alone with Chiro.

"Chiro, has something has been bothering you?"

Chiro looked at him and rubbed the back of his head "Um, kind of but not really,"

Antauri patted a spot on the table next to him and Chiro sat down "Tell me what's been bothering you,"

Chiro took a deep breath and let it out "I know it's not supposed to be that big of a deal but…"

Antauri looked at him, patiently listening to what he had to say and trying to understand what he was trying to say. "Is this about what Sparx said before?"

Chiro smiled at him "Sparx said a lot of stupid stuff today. Which part are you talking about?"

Antauri smiled back then got serious again "I think you know,"

Chiro leaned back against the examination table so he was balanced on the edge lying next to Antauri with his legs hanging off the side. "I know he didn't try to be mean about it but when he said you looked like you could be my dad it got me thinking…"

"About your parents?"

Chiro shook his head "No, I didn't start thinking about them until I got to my room,"

Antauri waited for him to continue, wondering why the boy had gotten so upset he left the room.

"What really came to mind when he said that was… Okay, you're going to think this is stupid,"

Antauri reached over and ran his fingers through Chiro's hair "Chiro, I would never think that about you,"

Chiro steeled himself for possible rejection and outright told him "It got me thinking about how even though when I first met you guys you acted like I was some kid that got dropped on your doorstep that you had to teach what you know to so I could be a better leader for you guys, you have always been like a father to me. I just didn't realize it until we've all been together a while,"

Antauri looked at him, unable to speak for a moment. '_So he _does _feel the same,'_

Chiro averted his eyes "I know, it's stupid but…" he stopped talking when Antauri pulled him in for a hug.

"Why didn't you say anything before?"

Chiro looked up at him "I didn't want you to think I was just being a stupid kid,"

Antauri pulled back to smile at him "Chiro, I don't think that, quite the opposite really,"

Chiro smiled but then his eyelids started to get heavy. Antauri saw this and levitated the boy's legs up onto the bed with the rest of him. "Get some rest, you've been through a lot these past few days,"

"But Antauri…"

Antauri gently ruffled his hair and smoothed it back out. "No 'but's, I will still be here when you wake up… my son,"

Chiro realized what Antauri just said and hugged him, starting to doze off. "So I guess this means I will be getting two new brothers or sisters soon?"

Antauri smiled "Yes, now go to sleep,"

Antauri waited for Chiro's breathing to slow down to soft snores before initiating his own recharge cycle.

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_Out in the Command Center_

Otto had inspected every last circuit board, cable and fuse on the Super Robot and he couldn't find anything that wasn't there a few days ago. So the only possible conclusion would be…

Sparx and Nova came in and were shortly joined by Artemis and Gibson.

Gibson went over to check on what Otto was doing while Artemis went to collect Eclipse from Mandarin who was sitting in one of the chairs reading to her and everyone except for Chiro and Antauri—who were still in the medical lab—and Forge and Dyna—no one really knew where those two had gotten to—gathered around the console Otto had taken apart to look at the circuit boards while still leaving them connected to the system via wires.

"Well, I've checked it from top to bottom; The Super Robot doesn't have any protective programming, and it wasn't a malfunction either," he looked at everyone pointedly so they would know which "malfunction" he was referring to.

Gibson helped him put everything back into place. "I'll have to agree with you, Otto. The Super Robot never actually flew off course. It simply _knew_ we were going in the wrong direction,"

Everyone stared at him, open mouthed. "What?"

Mandarin smirked at them "Maybe Antauri was right, perhaps the Super Robot is more than just a machine,"

Sparx held up his hands and said "Okay, I'm going to go for broke and be the first to admit it,"

He pointed at Gibson "That you were wrong, Gibson,"

Gibson looked at him, flabbergasted. "_I _was wrong? But you were the one that said…"

Tired of the red monkey's attitude, Artemis got out yet another piece of soap in hopes the third time was the charm and Sparx would get the message to stop sassing off to everyone.

Unfortunately, Sparx saw her coming with the soap and when she went to put it in his mouth he took it and shoved it in Gibson's, effectively cutting him off. "… That machines _could _have a soul. And you were wrong. Yep, wrong," he patted the blue monkey on the shoulder a little harder than was necessary to get him to stop struggling.

Artemis frowned and took out a small needle and injected it into Sparx's left side.

"Ouch, what the…" he turned around to see what bit him but his vision blurred as his pupils dilated and he fell over unconscious.

Nova went over to check on Sparx. "What did you do to him?"

Artemis put the cap back on the needle and put the syringe back into the compartment in her arm. "I gave him a mild sedative. It was actually enough to just make him dizzy so he would back off but he was already running on little sleep so he just went to sleep. I'm guessing the lack of rest is what made him so snappish to begin with,"

Gibson spat out the soap and looked over at Artemis. "Yes, I believe you might be right. Where do you get all that soap?"

"I always keep some on hand in case someone decides it would be a good idea to curse in front of Eclipse, or just trash talk everyone like Sparx has been doing lately," she shrugged "Or, you know, we stop somewhere with really filthy restrooms,"

Eclipse climbed off of her mother's back, toddled over to Sparx and prodded his face with her fingers and looked up at Artemis. "Mama, what's w'ong with Uncle Spa'x?"

Artemis smiled "Nothing, sweetie, he was just being really cranky so I gave him something to make him go night-night,"

Forge and Dyna came in and saw Sparx passed out on the floor "What the…?"

Eclipse smiled up at them "Uncle Spa'x was cwanky so Mama make him go night-night,"

Mandarin came over and picked his daughter up. "And I think it's about time you did the same," Eclipse yawned and curled against him as he carried her out of the room.

Artemis looked at the two that just came in "Where were you two just now?"

Forge rubbed the back of his head "We were… uh… looking for something,"

Artemis crossed her arms and looked at them like a mother that just caught her teenage kids sneaking in after curfew. "'Something'?"

Dyna signed and pulled a bag from behind her back. She reached in and pulled something out, the head of the friendly little robot from the trash compacter. "We went back and gathered all the pieces we could find. We were hoping we could to try to rebuild him,"

Gibson looked at them "Why would you want to do that?"

Dyna shrugged "Because he seemed like such a sweet little guy and he _did _try to help us, he just didn't have a better way to do it,"

Artemis thought about it and nodded. "Alright, as long as you have good intentions about reviving the small robot I see nothing wrong with trying,"

Dyna jumped up and down and squealed clutching the little bag "Thanks, Artie, I'll get started right away!"

Artemis called after her as she ran for their ship to put the bag in her little work station in the corner of the lab. "Get some sleep first, both of you!"

They both shouted back "Yes ma'am," as they went to their bunks.

Gibson looked at his remaining teammates "I think we would do well with some rest also,"

Nova tried to pick up Sparx off of the floor "What about him?"

Forge came back in and went over to where Sparx was on the floor. "I can carry him, which room is his?"

"Come on, I'll show you," Forge picked Sparx up bridal style and followed Nova to where the teams' rooms were and waited patiently for her to open the door to Sparx's room before carrying the tranquilized red monkey inside to place him in his bed and quietly walk back out.

Nova closed the door once he was out "Thanks"

Forge smiled at her "Your welcome, now if you would excuse me I wouldn't want to keep you from your own rest, Little lady,"

Nova was thankful the lights were already dimmed for the night so he wouldn't see her blush. "Oh, okay, goodnight,"

"Goodnight," they both parted ways to go to their respective sleeping places, just as everyone else was at that time.

* * *

_**AN: Okay, before you guys say anything, I looked it up and monkeys **__can __**have twins it's just really rare, just as it is for humans. **_

_**And for the record, I don't hate Sparx; He's awesome but in the episode shown here he was just being a little crab-apple so we don't get to see much of his awesomeness in this chapter, sorry Sparx fans.**_

_**Thanks to everyone that reviewed; Antaurisigma, Lorrie the Ninja Elf, kitkatkathy27121993, cheesybeans, Sami-SDGForce,**_


	9. Chapter 9

Monkey Doodle

Chapter 9

Rated T for language, a brief shower scene and anything else I might have missed

**Note: Antauri might seem a little OOC in this chapter but as you can see he has a reason.**

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my OC's, Koneko is not an OC's, he is a canon character that belongs to Ciro Nieli just like everything else on "SRMTHFG!" but he isn't named in the show so I gave him a name for the story.

Again, if I misspelled any names please let me know. I can't find anything online that says how some of the names of some people and places on the show are supposed to be spelled but I'll be happy to make corrections as needed.

The song used is "Starships" by Nicki Minaj.

"Talking"

'_Thought'_

"_Singing/ recordings,"_

"_**Speaking with the Power Primate,**_"

:Comm. links.:

{_Mantodon language_}

* * *

As the next few weeks wore on, the team went about their business—looking for the Dark One Worm, cleaning up the mess of baddies he left behind, etc.—and Antauri and Chiro gradually come to grips with their father-son relationship; they just haven't called each other "Dad" or "Son" when the others were around yet.

News of Antauri's twins travelled fast; seriously, all they had to do was tell Otto and Dyna and between the two of them everyone and everything on the Robot had been told at least twice by noon Shuggazoom-time the next day. Antauri was now approaching the three-month mark and his tummy was becoming more noticeable than it was before, they could now see the small bulge even when he wasn't in his ghost mode.

On this particular morning, just like any other, the silver monkey ran to the bathroom with his hand over his mouth. Yes, he was still getting morning sickness—it was really bad recently due to his stress levels from the repetitive monkey-nappings he had been subjected to but he was recovering—and, according to Artemis, he will continue to have it until he is around mid-term. One could imagine he was just _thrilled _to hear that.

Anyway, like any other time he came to the bathroom door and it happened to be closed, he knocked. Much to his dismay, Sparx's voice sounded from the other side "Someone's in here," and he heard the shower running.

Antauri leaned against the door, trying to will the contents of his stomach to stay there, when he heard someone on the other side of the door singing some song he couldn't for the life of him remember the name of in a slightly off-key voice.

"…_Starships were meant to fly-y-y. Hands up, and touch the sky-y-y. Can't stop, 'cause we're so h-i-igh. Let's do this, one more time! ..."_

Antauri smirked. '_Hmm, he probably wouldn't like it if anyone found out he's singing _that_ in the shower…'_ he pressed his ear to the door and opened it into the cone-shaped listening devise from before and routed the audio feed into a part of his processors that recorded what he heard. '_Lock _me _out of the bathroom, why don't you? This will teach him,"_

In the bathroom, Sparx was completely carefree continuing his shower and, thinking the person that knocked before left to try for the bathroom later, he started to sing along to a song that got stuck in his head earlier while he scrubbed his fur, occasionally using his scrub brush as a microphone.

"…_I'm on the floor, floor," _he hummed a few bars while he used the brush to get his back. He was starting to get a ringing in his ears; like his voice was echoing but he just shrugged it off as the echoes in the bathroom.

"… _If you want more, more, than here I am," _then he flipped the brush around to pretend it was an electric guitar while making the sound affects with his mouth.

"Daun-daun-daun-daun, _Starships were meant to fly-y-y, hands up and touch the sky-y-y, let's do this one last ti-i-ime, can't stop, we're higher than a…" _he pretended the brush was a guitar again and continued singing the song.

Once he was sure all the soap was washed away he turned off the water and reached out from behind the curtain to grab a towel to dry off the worst of the water so he could step out and wipe off the fogged up mirror so brush his teeth and check his reflection.

S-P-R-X-7-7 wasn't an overly vain monkey, but he liked what he saw "Looking good, Sparx," he gave his reflection a thumbs-up before walking out of the bathroom with the towel slung across his shoulders to find a very sickly-looking Antauri leaning against the wall.

Antauri looked up at him, almost afraid to open his mouth to ask "Finished?"

Sparx stepped out of the silver monkey's way as he leapt into the bathroom and barely making it to the toilet before puking in an arc of vomit that seemed almost planned to land directly into the bowl as Sparx close the door behind him with a shudder.

"Yeah, I definitely don't want to be him right now," Sparx shuddered again and dropped his towel in down a chute that opened up in the wall to send it down to the laundry room before walking towards the main area where the others were before the sounds of his brother's sick made him nauseous as well—he might have nerves of steel as a pilot but he was actually the most squeamish of his siblings.

_In the Command Center_

Everyone seemed to be in a pretty good mood when Sparx came into the room. In fact, several of them even started laughing quietly when they saw him. This confused him, they seemed to be laughing at him, but they couldn't be, he hadn't told any jokes yet.

"Alright, what's going on? You guys know I hate being on the outside of an inside joke,"

Chiro snickered behind his hand. "Oh, nothing, we were all just listening to that one song by Nicki Minaj a minute ago. You know, the one about the starships?"

Sparx smirked at the coincidence as he went over to the fridge to get some juice; that was the same song he had in his head when he was in the shower just now.

Nova joined in the snickers and added "Yeah, but you sing it better than she does,"

Sparx froze and set down the juice. He opened up his comm. link and internally scrolled through the history, it showed that Antauri had sent a live stream media message to everyone's comm. links around the same time Sparx was in the shower. His message also had a text message—Chiro had taught the monkeys about texting when he first joined and Otto set up their comm. links to be able to do it but they didn't use it often.— attached to it that said.

"_Next time, don't take so long. Ur not the only 1 that needs bathroom. XP _~A"

Sparx clenched his fists. "ANTAURI!"

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In the bathroom, Antauri somehow knew his brother had found out he broadcasted his little "show" to the rest of the team and that he was mad at him, but he wasn't all too worried about it, the red monkey was never really good at holding grudges.

Right now he was worried about making sure he wasn't going to heave again anytime soon. After swallowing the last traces of bile he flushed what actually came out down the tubes to be ejected out into space where it would be frozen into nothing in the cold vacuum and was about to stand up when he felt a strange… fluttering in his stomach.

Thinking it was recurring nausea he got back into position and waited, but nothing happened. After a moment he slowly, gently placed his hand on his stomach.

'_Could it be?'_ he waited for a moment longer before he felt it again and realized what it was; they moved, one or both of the twins had just _moved!_

Antauri suddenly felt so giddy he laughed with joy and just felt the need to share this with someone, but he didn't want to move right away—for some strange reason he felt like he would be disturbing them if he did.

"Hello in there," He gently rubbed his abdomen and spoke softly, like he was talking to a child that was asleep in their bed. That's when it hit him; He had _children _inside of him, his own little passengers.

Smiling at the thought, he looked up at the ceiling. "Is this how you feel with us inside of you?" he almost felt strange talking to the Robot after so long but then again he _was_ just talking to his stomach a moment ago.

A small door opened in the wall and a small robotic arm came out of it. At first he was startled but the arm bent and held its elbow joint out to him, offering to help him up. Antauri smiled and accepted the offer with a quick "thank you," and walked out of the room to meet up with the others in the command center.

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Once everyone was gathered in the command center—Antauri went to the kitchen to get some crackers to see if _those _will stay down and Sparx locked himself in his room for a while—they picked up dark energy readings on their scanners in another quadrant. Being as it was the fastest way to get there, they used hyperboost warp to get there.

As they came out of the warp tunnel their instruments started beeping wildly. Gibson checked them "Instruments confirm that the Skeleton King Worm is moving through this quadrant,"

Antauri checked the monitor and saw a planet that had the dark energy rippling across its surface. "I sense remnants of his dark forces emanating from that world,"

Mandarin looked at the screen and shuddered. "I sense it too. There's a lot of it down there,"

Chiro directed everyone to their stations. "Let's go in for a closer look,"

They all got to their stations and turned the Robot towards the planet while the Technosimians went back to their ship to detach and fly alongside as the two vessels entered the planet's atmosphere.

When they started to drop below the cloud line, they saw something approaching them that appeared to be a dark cloud amongst the light brown clouds.

"What is that?"

"I don't know, but it's coming right at us!" The cloud converged with them and suddenly they were being pelted by a swarm of what appeared to be giant insects.

With each hit they lost more and more energy; The Technosimian's smaller ship was easier to maneuver through the fray but one of them managed to take out one of its thrusters and send it spinning out of control.

"We're hit, we're going to have to land or…" another one took out the second of the ship's three thrusters. "… We're going down!"

Mandarin watched the ship plummet out of sight, taking his family with it. "NO!" he pressed his hands against the screen as if by doing so he could reach out and pull the ship back to him; it didn't do anything.

Gibson checked the Robot's stats "We've lost power to our engines!"

They heard a metallic groan and a shatter noise and saw the Super Robot's booster engines fly past. Otto pointed at them "It's worse than that, WE'VE LOST OUR ENGINES!"

The Super Robot tumbled through the air as it plummeted to the ground and landed hard. Everyone seemed to be fine, they were shaken but unharmed.

Nova shook her head to try to clear her dazed mind. "What the hell just happened?"

"We were attacked by some airborne menace," Gibson informed them. "And here it comes again,"

The swarm descended upon them as the Robot stood up, ready to counter attack but it was once again peppered by the insects. This time they were actually trying to bite through the armor and were slowly succeeding in pulling its joints apart.

Chiro tried to use the deflector shields but the Robot didn't have enough power. "I can't activate the shields. Gibson, get me power!"

Gibson checked the readings. "The neutron generator is down to four percent energy,"

Just then, a giant black claw broke through the roof of Foot Crusher Cruiser 6 and came down just inches away from Nova's head. "Um… A little help here?"

Chiro made a split-second decision "Diverting all emergency power to the deflector shields NOW!"

Everything in the Super Robot shut down, even the pilot lights went out, and the Robot's deflector shields activated. The insects burned when they came in contact with it like it was a giant bug zapper until the last of them melted away or fled.

Without any energy left, the Super Robot collapsed against a nearby cliff.

Once it was deemed safe, the team climbed out a hatch that opened up on top of the Robot's foot and inspected the damage.

Otto looked up and saw the damage done to the Robot and almost felt ready to cry. There were deep cuts and dents that littered the Robot's frame, its arm and leg servos were dislocated in many places, part of its lower face was peeled away and several pieces were missing completely.

"Ah, look at what they did to the Robot," he crooned like he was talking to an injured child; he had repaired and upgraded the Robot enough times to have practically rebuilt it at least twice and it hurt to see it so badly damaged.

Gibson frowned when he thought about what brought them down. "Picked apart by that insectoid menace," he shuddered "Ugh, I despise bugs!"

Sparx shrugged, trying to make light of the situation. "And now we're stuck here with them. Happy?"

Nova didn't see the humor of it and snorted "Too bad they didn't take you too,"

Mandarin leaned over and whispered "I think she's still mad at you from a while ago,"

Sparx stage-whispered back "Ah, come on, that was a month ago,"

Mandarin grinned and whispered back. "Women hold grudges, Sparx. I had to sleep on the floor in the bridge for a week one time because I made Artemis mad at me,"

Sparx's eyes widened "Whoa, how'd you piss her off?"

"I thought she was joking about something and tried to joke back, not only was it a bad joke but she was being serious. How was I supposed to know Technosimian females get menstrual periods just like human females do?"

Sparx winced "Too much information, Mandarin,"

While the two were talking, Chiro looked up at the Robot sadly and rubbed the metal plating on its leg. "Don't worry Robot, we'll get you back on your feet,"

Antauri looked around and scanned for any signs of anything that might have fallen off of the Robot—or others like that swarm that attacked them. "Easier said than done, Chiro; I detect pieces of the Robot scattered across the country side,"

Dyna climbed up and sat on the edge of the Robot's foot. "Yeah, there's some over there, and there, and I think there's some over there too,"

They looked over at her. "Dyna, how'd you get here? Where are the others?"

Dyna smiled up at them "Artemis and Forge are at the crash site trying to see what they can find that we can still use to repair our ship. They sent me to look for you guys to make sure you're all alright, and you're not exactly blending in out here,"

Mandarin looked over at her. "Is everyone alright?"

Dyna nodded. "Yeah, just a few scrapes and dents here and there. The ship isn't too bad either; aside from that hit in the thrusters we took it's mostly intact. Come on, I'll show you where they are and we can help you guys fix the Robot. Come on!" she slid off the edge of the Robot's foot and dropped down to the ground and landed in a crouch before running a few steps ahead to give them room to come down and waited for them.

The others stared down at her, surprised she made the jump unharmed; sure, monkeys were good at climbing and jumping but it was still a long way down. Chiro and the monkeys all activated their rocket packs and flew down so she could lead them to a shallow ditch that looked recently dug.

Closer inspection revealed it was recently dug; it was formed when the Technosimian's ship skidded across the ground to come to a stop several yards away from where the Super Robot landed.

As promised Forge and Artemis were climbing around on the outside of the ship to make the more minor repairs while they waited for their other teammate to return and help with the more heavier repair work since she was the team's main engineer. Forge was welding cracks and breaks in the metal with a blowtorch while Artemis popped the dents out with a device that looked like a big mechanical suction cup.

Artemis saw them and jumped down, setting down the devise so she could run over to them. "Oh, good, she found you all. Is everyone alright?"

"Yeah, we're okay,"

Artemis hugged Mandarin who hugged back "Oh, thank goodness,"

Otto looked over their ship. "Hey, your guy's ship doesn't look too bad,"

Forge jumped down wiping grease and weld residue off of his hands on a rag. "It's mostly intact but we're missing the booster packs that got hit on the way down and we've lost all of the fuel that was in our tanks. Since we haven't repaired the cracks in the hull yet pouring in more of the spare fuel we packed wouldn't make any sense if it's all going to run out again,"

Chiro nodded "Yeah, we're missing a lot of pieces too, including our engines," he turned to the monkey team. "Alright team, retrieve and repair, Hyperforce Go!"

Artemis called out to them as they all started to split up "Remember the buddy system!"

Chiro and the Hyperforce monkeys looked back at her. "What?"

Artemis sighed and explained "We don't know where we are or if there are more of those things out there. What we do know is that if they catch any of us alone… well, look what they did to our ship and the Robot,"

They all saw her point and started to pair off. Sparx started to reach for Nova's arm. "Hey, Nova…"

Dyna jumped between them. "Hold it, Red One," she hooked her arm around Nova's "Hey, wanna be buddies?"

Nova looked at her strangely then shrugged "Sure, why not,"

Sparx watched as the girls walked away and Forge came up to stand by him. "You look disappointed," Sparx waved his hand in the direction the girls had just gone. "Whenever we split up into teams of three I normally go with Otto and Gibson while Chiro, Nova and Antauri go together but when we split into pairs like this…"

Forge nodded "You normally go with her. I understand, back when it was the four of us and we had to split up I usually went with Dyna and Artemis went with… our other sister, but when Mandarin came into our little fold she just left for some reason. Turns out they knew each other but wouldn't say how,"

Sparx slumped "I don't know what all Mandarin's been up to when he wasn't around us but what I do know is that I need to find a new partner for this buddy system thing,"

Forge looked around to see who was available. "Well, Otto just took off in some random direction and Gibson ran after him so I'd say it's a safe bet those two are together…"

"Go figure,"

"…Nova and Dyna just left…"

"No shit,"

Forge frowned at the shorter monkey "Language. Chiro seems to be waiting to see who's left after Antauri and Mandarin get done arguing who gets to go and which one of them gets to wait here with Artemis and Eclipse while she works on what she can with the ship,"

Sparx looked over at the boy who was standing off to the side and to his arguing older brothers. "The kid's probably going to want to go with Antauri,"

Forge nodded "I know, but I think Mandarin's trying to get Antauri to stay close to the ship so he's out of the fighting if anything happens,"

The two looked at each other. "How about we just…"

Forge waved his hand forward "Go," the two left without another word.

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Nova and Dyna walked along trying to find the missing pieces—somehow Dyna seemed able to track them like a hunting dog and occasionally ran ahead to find one and run back to lead Nova to it.

Nova got around to scolding her, again "Seriously, Dyna, what's the point of using the buddy system if you keep running off?"

Dyna came trotting back to show her where the next piece was—possibly a part of the Robot's shoulder—and waved her off playfully. "Oh come on, Nova, I'm not going that far away. Besides, when was the last time you actually spent time with other girls?"

Nova thought about it and looked ashamed. "Aside from you, Artemis and Eclipse the only girls I've ever been around since Chiro joined the team was Jinmay, Raven, Lily and Minerva back on Shuggazoom. And Valina but she tried to kill us so I'm not going to count her,"

Dyna looked at her incredulously "Whoa, looks like we need to have a girls night one of these days," They came to the gigantic shoulder coupling and stared at it for a moment. "In the meantime… how in the Jungle are we going to get this thing back to the Robot?"

Not thinking of any other way, they shrugged and set to digging the metal coupling out of the dirt and calling the others to let them know where they were.

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In the end, Mandarin won the argument by bringing up something that Antauri obviously wanted left alone. No one else knew what it was because he whispered it in the silver monkey's ear but it was obviously good blackmail because Antauri gasped and glared at him whispering. "I thought we agreed to never speak of that again,"

Mandarin smirked and crossed his arms smugly. "Don't have to; I got it on tape,"

Antauri's eyes widened. "No you didn't,"

Chiro looked at them both. "What? What is it?"

Mandarin grinned and opened his helmet to reveal a projector lens. "Here, I'll show you…" He raised his voice to be heard over Antauri who tried to tackle him only to be stopped by his arm. "…Unless Antauri stays here,"

Antauri stopped trying to grab the lens away from his brother and walked over to where his sister-in-law was standing, resisting the urge to pout the entire time—he still had _some _dignity left and he wanted to keep it.

Once everyone else was gone Artemis went about examining any exposed wires and marking the damaged ones that needed to be replaced with red tape while Antauri used the Power Primate to check if there was any damage beneath the surface they might have missed.

Finding a broken pipe that was leaking some type of liquid next to a sparking wire, he reached through the metal with his ghost claw and pulled the wire away from the liquid to keep them away from each other. "Artemis, could you hand me the tape, please?"

A roll of tape was in his free hand a moment later and he hooked the roll on his tail so he could take a piece and phase it through the panels to wrap it around the wire. "That should hold until we can get to it,"

After some time of patching things up they stopped and waited for the others to call and ask for help.

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Chiro and Mandarin walked along in the opposite direction everyone else was—they were walking south, the girls were going north, Otto and Gibson went east and Sparx and Forge went west—looking for anything that looked like it could be a part of the Robot or the Technosimians' ship.

After several minutes, Chiro decided it was too quiet and broke the awkward silence. "So what was it that Antauri didn't want you to tell anyone?"

Mandarin smirked, eyes never straying from the search. "I only brought that up to get him to stay. Kind of defeats the purpose if I told you anyway,"

Chiro smirked back "Ah, come on, I don't even get a hint?"

Mandarin's smirk disappeared and he sighed in defeat "It was something that happened back on Koralaldal years ago. Everyone else thought it was funny but Antauri is still embarrassed by it. That's the only hint you'll get for now,"

Chiro was about to protest when the orange monkey pointed off to the side "There's something over there," The two ran over to a cliff where one of the Super Robot's engines stuck up out of the ground like a giant lawn dart. They climbed up to the top of the ridge and jogged over to it to examine it.

While they were checking it for damage, Nova checked in and told them she and Dyna found part of the Robot's shoulder

Chiro activated his comm. link :Ok, we found one of the Robot's engines. It looks intact but the fuel cells have been drained.:

Antauri answered :Roger, Chiro. We'll be right there.:

Just before he closed off the link, they heard a cry nearby. They ran over to the edge of the cliff and saw one of the giant insects that attacked them before attacking a humanoid feline girl in a pink and white dress with light brown tabby fur.

Seeing that the bug was alone, Mandarin and Chiro jumped down to help the girl.

"THUNDER PUNCH!" Chiro hit the monster right across the face, making it step back and turn its attention towards him.

When it tried to slash him with its claws Mandarin held it off with his shield until whirling green energy blades spun through the air and cut its arm off, causing the creature to roar with pain.

They looked up to see Otto land next to them and smile at them, only to be knocked away by the insect's remaining claw before it lifted off to hover above them, but before it could do anything they heard Nova's battle cry.

"LADY TOMAHAWK!" the golden monkey launched herself into the air and hit the bug in the midsection with her fists hard enough to send it to the ground where Sparx and Gibson shot it until it fell in a green and black heap.

Chiro looked at the others "How did you find us so fast?"

"You left your communicator on so we heard the whole fight and followed the signal here. We came as fast as we could," Gibson cleared his throat "Now then, about our engines…"

Sparx put his hands on his hips and glared at him "Why do you always have to talk to the monsters? Can't you just fight?"

Gibson held up his finger like he was giving a lecture "Sparx, never underestimate the power of communication," Then he saw the insect had gotten up and was looming over Sparx from behind. He tried to warn him but all his words came out in a hysteric babble so he was just pointing behind him like a hysteric idiot.

Luckily, Sparx got the message and they both ran away as the creature drove its remaining claw into the ground where they had been standing.

Forge flew up and ran up the insect's back "Hey, Bugsy!" he activated his hammers and waited until he had its attention. "HAMMER TIME!" he brought both hammers down on where its injured arm met the shoulder, crushing the joint into powder and letting the limb fall to the dust.

The insect roared with pain and outrage once more and tossed Forge off of it, the gray monkey hit the ground with enough force to form a small crater a few inches deep.

Artemis slid down the cliff to check on him while Antauri jumped off the ledge and hovered above the monster.

"MONKEY MIND SCREAM!" the sound blast hit the creature right in the back. Deciding it had taken enough of a beating, the monster lifted off and flew away as soon as it was airborne.

They watched it leave, Sparx spoke up "We didn't come here to squash bugs,"

Everyone regrouped on the ground while Antauri floated down to them "We don't know what we are dealing with on this planet,"

Chiro spotted the girl from before, walking into a thick bamboo forest. "No, but I bet she does," The girl watched them for a moment longer before disappearing into the brush.

"Wait, we're not going to hurt you!" Chiro ran after her and the monkeys and Technosimians followed him.

They followed her until they came to a village that consisted of small white buildings with roofs that looked like cat ears surrounding a large structure that was built to look like a giant white cat that had strange brown symbols carved and painted on it. They had lost sight of the girl but they cautiously crept into the village, alert for any signs of life.

At first they didn't see anything. "Where is everybody?"

"Looks like they've all gone,"

Antauri heard something moving out in the tree line and turned to face it; there were shadows moving about the brush, someone was watching them "My senses tell me otherwise,"

The others looked and saw the shadows to, along with scores of feline eyes watching them. The owners of these eyes stepped out into the clearing, claws out and snarling at them.

Not knowing what else to do, Chiro held up his hands in a non-threatening manner "Nice kitties,"

* * *

_**AN: CLIFFHANGER! Sorry but I had to cut it off somewhere. A quick shout out to the people that reviewed; AntauriSigma, cheesybeans, kitkatkathy27121993, Sami-SDGForce, Sonicathehedgehog, suzyq85. You guys are awesome!**_


	10. Chapter 10

Monkey Doodle

Chapter 10

Rated T for violence, language, and some gore.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my OC's, Koneko is not an OC's, he is a canon character that belongs to Ciro Nieli just like everything else on "SRMTHFG!" but he isn't named in the show so I gave him a name for the story.

Again, if I misspelled any names please let me know. I can't find anything online that says how some of the names of some people and places on the show are supposed to be spelled but I'll be happy to make corrections as needed.

"Talking"

'_Thought'_

"_Singing/ recordings,"_

"_**Speaking with the Power Primate,**_"

:Comm. links.:

{_Mantodon language_}

* * *

The cats snarled and crept closer.

Sparx activated his magnets. "Okay, fur is going to fly," the others got out their weapons, except for Forge, who just got into a fighting stance so he was ready for whatever came next, and Artemis, who shifted Eclipse onto a more protected position on her back.

Chiro got into a fighting stance "Battle circle formation team, Hyperforce GO!"

Forge looked at each of them and sighed "You guys are too quick to reach for your weapons,"

Sparx looked over at him "Yeah, but at least we're going out fighting, you pansy a-"

Just then, the female that lead them there jumped between the two groups and mewled at her companions. "_Meow, _Stop, leave them alone! _Meow, Meow!_ They saved me from the Mantodons!_" _When the others calmed down she hugged Chiro, the boy went still when she started licking him affectionately.

Sparx kicked at the dirt. "Oh, Come on! How come whenever we save someone and there's a girl involved they always go for the kid!"

Otto put a hand over his mouth "Jinmay's not gonna like this…"

The girl pulled away and looked Chiro right in the eye "I owe you my life,"

Chiro blushed and rubbed the back of his head "Ah, it was nothing,"

She stood up to her full height "I am Nikkita,"

Chiro introduced himself and the monkeys "I'm Chiro and this is the Hyperforce and those guys over there are Technosimians. We're just stuck here trying to get our Robot and the Technosimians' ship back in shape. Our mission depends on it,"

Nikkita thought for a moment then clasped her hands together excitedly. "Your mission? Then you have come here to help us, to defend Kathuri!"

Seeing he wasn't very clear, Chiro held up his hands "Whoa, hold on a nanosec…"

Then a tall male cat, or Kathurian from what Nikkita just told them, with darker tabby fur wearing white samurai garb stepped up to them. He looked down at Chiro with cold green eyes before addressing the crowd.

"Felines of Kathuri, for too long we have been terrorized by the Mantodon menace! With our new allies we will fight for our village!"

They all waited while the crowd broke out into doubtful mutterings.

Sparx noticed Nova and Dyna were staring at the male that just spoke with little hearts in their eyes. When he touched Nova's shoulder she floated up and steam came out of her ears as she floated back down and Dyna bit her knuckles to keep from giggling; both girls were smitten by the tall warrior feline.

A tiny white kitten with big blue eyes stepped out of the crowd and started to play with Otto's tail. The green monkey saw this and wiggled it around for the kitten to chase it, chuckling. "Ah, what a cute little kitty,"

Finally, one of the older Kathurians spoke up "You and your sister are fools to think we can resist the Mantodons, Tikudo!"

One of the females agreed with him "If these monkey creatures have made enemies with the Mantodons they will come looking for them,"

The male from before stepped up, shouting "EXPELL THEM FROM THE VILLAGE!"

Nikkita spoke up "NO! That is not the Kathurian way! Let us consult The Great Wise One,"

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The two Kathurians lead them into the large cat-shaped structure where a large, elderly black cat with squinting eyes wearing red robes sat on a stone seat in meditation.

Once they explained the situation, he spoke in a tired voice filled with wisdom. "Ah, I understand your desire to fight, young Nikkita,"

At first they looked hopeful, but the elder cat continued "But we cannot place our fate in the hands of outsiders,"

Disappointed, Nikkita and Tikudo bowed their heads respectfully.

"With that said, I believe as Kathurians we should offer them a meal for defending one of our own,"

At the mention of food, Otto smiled "So… we get to eat then?"

Not wanting to offend the Kathurians, and because Otto already accepted the offer for them, the two teams followed the Kathurians to another building where there were tables being with platters and bowls being set out while they and the villagers gathered around for the meal.

On the platters and in the bowls was a variety of worms, slugs and other little creepy crawlies squirming around.

Chiro looked over at Tikudo "So, um… what is all this?"

Tikudo looked across the table at him. "It's Mugor, Food of the warrior,"

Chiro looked over at Nikkita who was chomping down on a giant green worm. Not wanting to offend the Kathurians, he forced a smile and said it looked good.

Nova did the same when she saw Tikudo was looking at her, not wanting to upset him.

Gibson stared at a bowl of wriggling purple worms that was placed in front of him. "First living breathing behemoth bugs…"

"…and now this," Sparx saw the Mandarin, Dyna and Forge were actually eating while Artemis was feeding Eclipse little pieces in between bites of her own food. Sparx leaned closer to Forge and whispered "How can you guys eat that?"

Forge whispered back. "We have gone hungry too often to be picky. From the looks of things these people actually are going hungry yet they give us what little they have out of kindness. It would greatly offend such kindness if we don't at least try it,"

Otto ate his own helping and looked over at Sparx and whispered "Are you gonna eat that?"

The red monkey made a face and discreetly pushed the bowl of squirmy blue things towards him.

Chiro and the monkey team—besides Otto—were grossed out but Mandarin and the Technosimians ate enough so they didn't offend their hosts and secretly shared with children that came up to them with sad hungry eyes.

The little white kitten from before came right up to Otto and gave him the same look the others did. The green monkey smiled and held him up to the bowl he just got from his brother. The kitten mewled and tucked in, shoving his head right in the bowl.

One female came up and scolded him "Koneko, don't be rude,"

Otto smiled and waved her off. "It's okay, the little guy sure is hungry,"

Tikudo nodded solemnly "He is. We all are. With the Mantadons stealing our energy we are lucky to harvest what little we can. And even that is sometimes stolen,"

Nova looked over at him sympathetically "That's awful,"

Gibson looked up at this "You mean they _consume _energy,"

Antauri put a hand on his chin in thought "That must be why they attacked the Robot and the ship,"

Mandarin saw that Antauri wasn't eating and leaned over "Antauri, maybe you should eat something. You are eating for three after all,"

Antauri frowned and brought up a hand to softly back-hand his brother in the face.

"Ow, My face!" Mandarin sat back in his chair rubbing his muzzle.

The female that scolded Koneko earlier, a village healer judging by the white robes she was wearing and the belt covered in medicine pouches that hung around her waist, over heard them and looked over at Antauri and saw the tiny bump his hand happened to rest on. "Oh, you are expecting a litter?"

Antauri looked up at her and saw she had figured him out. He hid his embarrassment at being found out so easily and politely answered her. "Yes, although a pair of twins would hardly be considered a litter…"

The female placed a hand on her chest "I am Surji, I am one of the healers of this village and Koneko's mother,"

While the two of them talked, Nikkita started talking to Chiro "I was trying to find the Mantodon nest when you found me. I thought I could find a way to stop them,"

Artemis looked over at her "That was very brave of you, Nikkita, but very unwise. Judging by the way they behaved when they attacked us they are obviously a hive grouping and hive groupings always have the bigger and fiercer members of their hives guard the nest. For all we know the ones we have seen so far were small scouts and the bigger and meaner ones could be stationed near the nest,"

Once again, Tikudo tried to convince the other villagers that they needed to stand up for themselves. "We must fight, before it's too late!"

The Great Wise One slammed his fist down on the table "TIKUDO!" they all stared at the elderly Kathurian, who slowly regained his composure. "We are not warriors, not anymore," the villagers all bowed their heads solemnly "We have had peace for so long we have become domesticated,"

Nikkita looked over at him. "But Po…"

The elderly feline was beginning to lose his patience "ENOUGH! We cannot risk raising the ire of the Mantodons!"

After everyone finished eating, Chiro and the monkeys left. The other villagers were glad to see them go but before they left Artemis, Forge and Dyna bowed respectfully and said "Thank you for your kindness. If there is any way we can repay you just ask,"

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It was dark out by the time they got back to the Robot but they still hadn't repaired it enough to power it up and the only way they could get to their rooms from the hatch in its foot was via the tubes—the only way they even got down the tubes was because Otto climbed up his to get to the main area where Mandarin was and they all slid down them to get to the foot where Nova had opened the only manual hatch on the Robot—so they set up camp in a clearing just inside the forest.

They all gathered around the small fire they had managed to build, Mandarin and Forge taking the first watch.

Otto sighed and stared into the fire. "They're so cute and cuddly…"

Dyna poked the fire with a stick "I know we just gotta help them,"

Forge quietly called over. "Are you saying that because you want to help or because of Tikudo?"

She broke the singed part of the stick and flicked it at him, knowing he'd just bat it away and stomp out the cinders, which he did.

Sparx looked over at them "I'd like to help too, but half of these cats don't even _want _our help. It's not our fight,"

Nova clenched her fist at him "The Kathurians are living in fear, Sparx!"

Artemis nodded from where she had just finished rocking Eclipse to sleep. "That's no way for anyone to live,"

Gibson spoke up "Sparx does have a valid point. Our first priority would be to repair the Robot and the Technosimians' ship and find the Skeleton King Worm. Our mission isn't here, it's out there,"

"Gibson's right," they all stared at Antauri, he was so still they almost didn't realize he had spoken at all.

"Antauri…"

He held up a hand to cut Nova off. "Nova, I sympathize with their plight, but I sense our further involvement here will create more harm than good for the village,"

'_Sometimes it sucks to be the voice of reason, but someone has to do it…' "_Ultimately, though, the decision lies with you, Chiro,"

Everyone turned to Chiro, who had been silently glaring at the fire since it was lit. After a few minutes, he stood up and walked in the direction of the village.

"Where's he going?"

Mandarin saw the boy walking away and followed "I'll go make sure the boy doesn't do anything stupid,"

Antauri stood up and followed his brother "And who's going to make sure _you _don't do anything stupid?"

Mandarin looked back over his shoulder at him. "Really, Antauri, do I _ever _do anything stupid?"

Antauri pinched the bridge of his nose "Oh please, last time you said that we ended up in…" his voice faded away as they slipped into the brush to follow Chiro, the others not far behind.

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_In the Kathurian village_

Nikkita stood in front of a golden statue of a cat, head bowed and hands folded in prayer. When the wind changed direction, a familiar scent reached her nose. Recognizing the scent she turned in the direction it had come from and saw Chiro.

"Chiro,"

Chiro looked at her, the hopeful look on her face when she saw him, and felt like the biggest jerk in the cosmos for what he had to say. "Nikkita, I want to help you and your village, but there is something we must do. I'm sorry,"

She looked at him sadly and then looked down at the ground. "I understand, we simply don't matter…"

Chiro tried to say something to her but she heard a noise. Her ears flicked about to locate it until she looked up and saw what the buzzing noise was coming from.

Tikudo stepped into the brush where the monkeys had been crouching. When they looked up at him for an explanation he simply said "Mantodons,"

Up in the sky, a large red Mantodon flew towards the village flanked by two other Mantodons like the one they had fought before.

Chiro looked over to where the monkeys were, about to run over to them but Nikkita pulled him behind a building. "There's no time," she pulled some clothes off a nearby clothesline and a hat that was left on the ground next to an old walking stick. "Quick, put these on,"

Chiro had gotten his disguise on just as the Mantodons landed; the red one in the middle was obviously much larger than the other two.

Artemis looked over at the others and whispered "Told you so,"

The red leader walked right up to The Great Wise One and roared at him {_Old one, where are the outsiders?_}

Po somehow understood it but played dumb "Outsiders? Hmm, I know not of any outsiders,"

The red leader bellowed and knocked him aside {_Lies, our trackers have traced outsiders that attacked one of our scouts to this village!}_

Nikkita went to make sure Po was alright. Furious, she growled at the Mantodons, only for the red one to grab her by the arms and hold her over its head, causing her to cry out.

{_Tell us where the outsiders are!_}

The entire time this had been happening, Chiro had been standing among the crowd disguised as a Kathurian while the monkeys angrily gripped stalks of bamboo to keep from rushing out onto the scene.

Just before the Mantodon could rip Nikkita apart, Chiro threw the walking stick in his hand like a javelin, sending it right into the Mantodon's eye.

The beast screamed as it dropped Nikkita on the ground. Once it dislodged the wood from its eye it grabbed Chiro and shot a yellow energy beam out of its mouth at him, burning the disguise off of him and throwing him on the ground.

"CHIRO!" The monkeys rushed out to help him but were stopped by the other two Mantodons.

Mandarin, and Nova slipped past them to fight the red one while Artemis and Antauri saw to Chiro and the others dealt with the two guards.

Gibson managed to get a lucky shot with his drills into the chest of the one he and Sparx had been fighting, the Mantodon writhed and disintegrated, the energy within it dispersing.

Getting an idea, he called over to Otto, Dyna and Forge, who were teaming up against the remaining green Mantodon. "The thorax, that's their weak spot!"

Otto stared at him blankly so Gibson, Dyna and Forge started naming off other words to describe where he wanted him to hit the bug while the latter two were trying to get to it themselves.

"Abdomen!"

"Torso!"

"Belly!"

Otto finally caught on "Oh, their guts! Why didn't you say so?" he ducked underneath a claw that Forge deflected with his hammers and sliced the insect right up the middle with his saws, causing it to disappear in a burst of energy.

The red leader saw its guards were gone and directed the ray it had used on Chiro on the monkeys.

They monkeys screamed as the stinging energy seeped into their bodies and sapped their energy until their weapons folded back into their hands. While the others stared at their hands numbly, trying to reactivate their weapons, Antauri's eyes flickered and went dark, the silver monkey collapsed promptly after.

The others waved their hands above him, trying to fan him off to try to revive him but it didn't work.

While they were distracted, the red giant turned back to Chiro, claw ready to strike.

Chiro pushed himself to his feet but the beam had given him a good pounding. He saw a blur of orange out the corner of his eye that shouted "Chiro, look out!" but the boy couldn't move.

Chiro braced himself for the blow and cringed when he heard the claw come in contact with something solid. But then he realized it wasn't him that the claw had hit.

He opened his eyes and saw Mandarin had jumped between him and the Mantodon and took the blow head on. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion as the orange monkey cried out and flew through the wall of one building and out the other side to roll to a stop next to where the other monkeys were.

Time sped up again as Artemis ran over to make sure he was alright while Nikkita and Tikudo snarled at the red menace, only this time they were joined by the other villagers.

Seeing it was outnumbered, the Mantodon roared at them and fled.

Chiro ran over to the monkeys and fell to his knees next to Antauri. "Is everyone okay?"

Gibson was examining Antauri. "Most of us are fine, we just can't activate our weapons, but most of Antauri's mechanical systems have shut down. He only has enough energy left to keep his vital systems running and the twins alive while Mandarin…"

Chiro looked over and saw a very deep gash running across the orange monkey's chest, it was deep enough that Chiro could see that it sliced into his actual chest under the cyborg armor; when Mandarin or Artemis weren't applying pressure to the wound to try to stop the bleeding so she could tape him up, that is.

Eclipse tried to see over her mother's shoulder. "Mama, what's w'ong with Daddy and Uncle 'Tauri?"

Artemis reached back to rub her head. "It's okay, sweetie, Uncle 'Tauri is low on energy and Daddy got scratched up really bad by the giant bugs,"

Eclipse climbed down, despite her mother's protests and best efforts to keep her on her back, and placed both hands on Mandarin's shoulder like she was going to try to wake him up but didn't want to shake him. "Daddy?"

Mandarin slowly opened his eyes to see Eclipse looking down at him with scared little eyes and shakily held up a hand to gently hook one of his knuckles under her chin. "Hey, baby girl, are you alright?"

Eclipse nodded. "You gonna be okay, wight Daddy?"

Mandarin smiled up at her, but it was forced due to the pain of his wound. "Yeah… I'll be okay… and so will Antauri… we've both had worse than this,"

Eclipse tilted her head, curious and confused. "When Daddy?"

Antauri's eyes flickered and his pupils reappeared in dim little circles in the center of his eyes. "Lava pits… charting mission…" he mumbled softly.

They all looked over at Antauri, relieved he was at least functional. Mandarin actually understood what he said. "Ugh, don't remind me. Those were the worst four days of my life," he chuckled dryly but winced at the motion.

Surji came over and knelt beside them. "The Mantodons will be back. Come, I will show you to the healers' hut, your friends will be safe there,"

Eclipse clung to her father when they tried to move him, like she was afraid they were going to take him away from her. Artemis pried her off and rocked her gently. "Shh, It's okay, we're going to move Daddy somewhere safe so he can get better,"

Otto stepped up and held his arms out for his little niece. "Here, I can keep an eye on her so you can be with Mandarin,"

Reluctant to let her little girl go but trusting the younger green monkey to keep her safe while she tended to Mandarin, Artemis carefully placed Eclipse in Otto's arms and kissed her on the forehead. "Sweetie, I'm going to go make sure Daddy's okay. You be good for your Uncle Otto, okay?"

Eclipse nodded "Okay, Mama,"

Artemis smiled at her and in turn at Otto. "Thanks, Otto,"

The green monkey smiled back at her. "My pleasure" then he stepped back so the others could carry their fallen comrades.

Gibson, Dyna, Nova and Sparx carefully lifted Mandarin off the ground almost pall-bearer style while Artemis held Mandarin's head to keep it from flopping around while the orange monkey was carried into one of the buildings Surji lead them to and was set down on a mat that was laid out on the floor.

The orange monkey bit his lip until it bled to keep from crying out when they jostled them but waved them off when they tried to apologize.

Chiro carried Antauri in, reluctant to let go of him or let anyone else carry him, and set him on another mat.

Antauri lay on the mat, staring blankly at the ceiling, he could sense his family surrounding him but he was almost completely unable to move and he barely had the strength to speak.

He felt Chiro's hand on top of his. "Antauri, are you okay,"

Antauri blinked "I believe so. But I feel so… so weak, I can hardly move," he felt a fluttering feeling in his tummy area and smiled from relief. "The twins, on the other hand, don't seem to have that problem,"

"They're moving?"

Antauri smiled and guided his hand to where the twins were most active; he couldn't actually pull the boy's hand but he could clench his fingers to show him where to move his hand until it rested on his stomach and waited.

After a moment, Chiro felt a slight twitch beneath his hand. "Feel that?"

Chiro looked dumbfounded for a moment and slowly nodded "Is that… them?"

Antauri chanced a nod "Yes, that's them,"

Sparx watched from the doorway—he was reluctant to actually go inside because something about this building reminded him of a hospital, and he didn't like hospitals.—and spoke up. "Hey, if all Antauri needs is energy we can give him one of the spare energy cells we have stashed in the Robot. I can get him one,"

Tikudo came in and loomed in the doorway next to him. "While that is a valiant notion, without your weapons you will be helpless against the Mantadons, It is too dangerous to go alone,"

"Who says he's going to be alone?" the two of them looked over to see Forge stand up and come to stand by the shorter red monkey. "I'll go as back up,"

Sparx smirked and put a hand on Forge's thick shoulder, not even turning to look at him. "Uh, no offense old-timer, but I don't need…"

Forge grabbed him by the arm, spun him around and lifted him by the white patch on his chest so his legs dangled off the ground. "_Never _call me 'old-timer' and if I can trounce you this easily the Mantadons can easily make sure you never live to be one,"

Sparx tried to pry the calloused metal hands off of him "Okay, okay, fine, you can come,"

Forge smiled and carefully set him down. "Glad you finally see reason, Sparx,"

Sparx brushed himself off and gestured for him to go first with a wry smirk. "Age before beauty,"

Forge frowned and stepped outside, looking around warily for possible threats while Sparx simply walked out behind him, still wanting to tease the older monkey.

"Okay, we're going to have to move fast if we want to get there and back without running into any Mantodon patrols so try to keep up," Sparx ran to the edge of the forest where he dropped down on all fours to cover more ground and disappear into the brush more easily.

Forge rolled his eyes and simply started out running on all fours and easily blew past the red monkey who stopped and looked around to see what just sped by him.

"Huh, what?" he looked up and saw Forge leaning against a stand of bamboo about fifty meters ahead of him.

The gray monkey smiled and saluted him before circling back to whisper in his face once he got close enough. "Try to keep up,"

Sparx rubbed his eyes like he thought he was dreaming and looked at Forge again as the gray monkey started walking away. "How did you just…"

Forge smiled and gestured for him to follow, which Sparx did "I grew up in a jungle and when our planet was attacked I have been on the run ever since, I know how to move quickly between the trees,"

The two continued their journey in silence.

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_Meanwhile, back at the village_

Artemis started to clean the cut across Mandarin's chest with a rag she dipped in a bowl of hot water, both were kindly provided by Surji while said healer held him so she could clean him off. To keep him from blacking out, she tried to keep him talking "So, what happened in the lava pits on that charting mission and why were they the worst days of your life?"

Mandarin smirked. "Okay, maybe I over exaggerated but that experience wasn't exactly pleasant. No offense, Antauri,"

"None… taken,"

Chiro looked over "Wait, so what happened?"

Mandarin looked up at the ceiling. "We were on a mission to map out nearby planets and we came to one that was mostly volcanic. Antauri and I got separated from the others and somehow ended up next to the lava pits. While we were trying to figure out how we got into that situation to begin with some volcanic activity in the pits caused a rockslide that forced us to slide into a dormant fissure and wait for the others to find us,"

Chiro's eyes widened "You guys were stuck in a dormant fissure for four days?"

Mandarin shook his head "No, we were stuck there for half a day, but the heat from the lava fused our armor together, the rest of that time was spent sitting in the lab waiting for Gibson to figure out how to separate us,"

Artemis finished disinfecting the gash in her mate's chest.. "There, that ought to do it," she went to put the bowl and rag on a nearby table and looked own at Antauri on her way by. "And _you, _little mister, should be resting. You need to save your energy for as long as you can,"

Chiro grabbed Antauri's hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. "Don't worry, Antauri, when Sparx and Forge get back with the spare energy cells we'll fix you up good as new,"

Antauri stared blankly at the ceiling again. "Perhaps… the 'silver monkey' is not as powerful as we thought…"

Mandarin looked over at him. "Antauri, if you weren't with child and half in a coma I'd slap you for thinking like that,"

Artemis pinned his shoulders to the mat, causing him to wince "As if you could move. Now hold still, I need to stitch you up," she got a small suture kit out of the compartment in her helmet and sterilized the needle in the flame of a nearby candle.

Nova came back from talking to Tikudo outside—since he and Nikkita were the only ones willing to fight he was her best bet of figuring out what they were up against—and told the others what she had heard. "Well, Tikudo estimates there's about twenty Mantadons,"

They heard Otto's voice from just outside the door "Good, then we each get to squish a bunch!"

Artemis went over to the door and leaned around the corner "Otto, where is Eclipse?"

Otto stepped up where she could see him "I got her right here," he held up Eclipse. The little monkey was clinging to him with her head on his chest, she was obviously tired but she seemed almost afraid to fall asleep.

Artemis sighed and hissed "Otto, the reason I asked if you could watch her is so she didn't have to see her dad and her uncle on a hospital bed,"

Otto looked down and saw her point. "Oh, well, where do you want me to take her?"

Surji looked up from a bowl of herbs she was grinding into a paste with a pestle and mortar and over at Koneko, who was sitting in the corner watching his mother work. "Koneko, dear, would you like to show the green monkey outside with the little girl monkey around the village?"

Koneko nodded and scampered out to show his new friend around.

Artemis looked over at the female Kathurian. "Thank you,"

Surji smiled at her "I worry about my kitten too, and as much as I want Koneko to learn the tools of the trade of being a healer I just don't want to have to expose him to the more severe cases yet,"

Gibson's shoulders slumped "I wish I could be as optimistic as Otto is, but we couldn't defeat _three _Mantodons with our powers. Without them… I don't even want to calculate the odds,"

Nova sat down with her knees pulled up to her chest. "According to Tikudo and Nikkita all the green ones are just workers and guards but that big red one that hit us is actually the Queen,"

"Whoa, they must be ticked off if they're going to send the _Queen _after us,"

Just then, Chiro's comm. link went off, signaling Sparx was calling him. He put it on speaker so everyone could hear.

:Chiro, do you read me? over:

"I read you Sparx,"

:Bad news, those bugs are all over the Robot, they've scavenged all the energy sources.:

Chiro asked him "How many are there, Sparx? Nova says Tikudo estimates about twenty,"

It was quiet on the other end of the line—although they thought they could make out Sparx mumbling "That lying sack of…"—before Forge cut in.

:Chiro, there are more than twenty on the Robot's _arm_ and it's covered in the things. We're coming back, I'm sorry.: Sparx cut off the line after that.

"Chiro…" they all looked down at Antauri. "…Sometimes fate makes our choices clear…"

Chiro nodded and walked out of the hut to find Tikudo.

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Out in the village square, all the Kathurians sat in a circle to debate what they should do next. "We must gather our things and flee to the mountains!"

Tikudo looked over at the male that said that "With winter coming?" The other male had forgotten about the upcoming change in season and hung his head in embarrassment.

"That's just as dangerous as facing the Mantodons. We must fight!"

Just as he said that, Chiro stepped up to the group. "We intend to fight the Mantodons,"

The crowd gasped, another unknown male spoke up. "Without your weapons?"

Chiro looked at him "We're going to need your help. You were once warriors, tonight you will be warriors again!"

"But how?"

Nova stepped up "I can teach you, I'm a martial arts master so if any of you are willing to fight step right up!"

Forge came bounding out of the forest to stand next to the two of them "We don't need our usual weapons to fight. Like I said before you all are too quick to use your weapons," he opened a compartment in each arm and pulled out a pair of daggers. "I happen to be a Blacksmith, Whatever weapons we don't already have I can make myself,"

Dyna stood next to her older brother "I'll help,"

Gibson came out of the hut "As will I,"

Otto bounced up with Eclipse on his shoulders and Koneko at his heels "What he said,"

Sparx came stumbling out of the brush, panting from the effort of trying to keep up with Forge. "Forge… I hate you… so much… right now,"

Forge twirled one of his daggers and smiled at the red pilot "Save it for the Mantodons, Sparx,"

Sparx looked at them "So, we're actually going to fight them?"

They all looked at the Kathurians who were slowly gathering behind Tikudo. "Oh yes, we're going to fight them.

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The rest of the night they put all of their time into making weapons and teaching the Kathurians how to fight.

Forge and Dyna had made little metal claws that attached to the back of the user's hands which Nova was teaching the younger Kathurians to use by slicing through bamboo stalks, one of which came down right on Sparx's head.

"Oops, sorry Sparx,"

While this was going on, the older Kathurians were making spears out of the bamboo that was cut down to make even more weapons for them to use.

Gibson was using his knowledge of chemistry to teach Surji and the other healers, and anyone else that wanted to learn, how to make gunpowder.

Sparx and Tikudo were setting up a wall around the village to keep out any Mantodons attacking on foot. Sparx struggled to push his section of the wall into place until it suddenly started to slide into place on its own.

A quick glance to his right revealed that Tikudo, damn him, was easily sliding the last pieces of the wall into place after he had already set up the other sections he was supposed to set up in the amount of time it took Sparx just to do one.

As it that wasn't a big enough blow to his male pride, he saw Nova and Dyna swooning over the display of physical strength by the male Kathurian. Sparx crossed his arms and looked away, unimpressed.

In another part of the village, Koneko and Eclipse were helping Otto tie bundles of bamboo together to make a cannon that Gibson could use is gunpowder in and setting pitfall traps at the edges of the village.

After everyone was inside the walls, Tikudo went to meditate in front of the golden cat statue Nikkita had prayed in front of just after nightfall that evening. In his lap was an ancient sword that had been in his family for generations; he planned on using it that night.

He drew the blade and saw how it gleamed in the moonlight, eager to sink the blade into the body of any Mantodon that crossed him.

While everyone else went to get into position for the battle, Po pulled Chiro to the side "Come, walk with me, young Chiro,"

Chiro followed him to the same building they had met him in and the two knelt at the foot of the stone seat he had been on.

Po reached behind a curtain that hung next to the chair and pulled out a suit of armor. "This was mine when I was much younger, back when the Kathurians were a race of fierce warriors. I want you to wear it in the fight to defend Kathuri,"

Chiro bowed respectfully "I would be honored, Wise One,"

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Once all the preparations were made, all that was left to do was wait.

On his way back to the healers' hut where the monkeys were, Chiro saw Nikkita on top of the Wise One's house. He climbed up to see what she was doing up there. "Hey Nikkita, what are you doing up here?"

The Kathurian girl smiled at him "Keeping a look out," she patted the spot next to her for him to sit down.

Nikkita looked over at Chiro when he sat down. "Thank you for staying, Chiro,"

Chiro looked down at all the Kathurians and the battle plans they had prepared for what was to come. "You can thank me when this is over,"

They sat there a few moments until they heard the tell-tale buzzing and saw the dark cloud of the Mantodon swarm flying closer.

The Mantodon Queen landed just outside the perimeter fence {_Foolish felines, think they can keep US out by putting up a big wooden fence_} she lopped off the wooden spikes on the top of the wall with a quick swipe of her claw and bellowed {_FIND THEM!}_

The smaller green Mantodons flew over the fence and searched among the buildings. But the Kathurians were hiding in the shadows waiting to strike. The Kathurians had split up into seven groups, each group had either Chiro or a monkey with them.

Once the Mantodons came close enough, the group Sparx was with plunged their spears into the chests of the nearest Mantodons, and thus began the ambush.

The team Nova and Tikudo lead came down off the rooftops to attack from above while the team Chiro and Nikkita were with came from the cover of the thick bamboo they had left inside the wall to attack from the opposite direction Sparx's team was coming from and Forge and Dyna's teams came from the other sides, completely surrounding the Mantodons and cutting them down to size with their spears.

The Queen saw her warriors falling and bellowed {_ATTACK! LEAVE NO SURVIVORS! TAKE NO PRISONERS!} _

* * *

_**AN: Doodle is about to get real! **_

_**Thank you all you readers and a quick shout out to the people that reviewed and/or added: AntauriSigma; Htgr8; kitkatkthy27121993; cheesybeans; Lorrie the Ninja Elf; Sami-SDGForce; DoKuRiNAnimationQueen.**_

_**Until next time…**_

_**Hugs and Mugs,**_

_**Lady Quickshift**_


	11. Chapter 11

Monkey Doodle

Chapter 11

Rated T for language, violence, gore

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my OC's, Koneko and Groman are not OC's, they are canon characters that belong to Ciro Nieli just like everything else on "SRMTHFG!" but they aren't named in the show so I gave them names for the story.

Again, if I misspelled any names please let me know. I can't find anything online that says how some of the names of some people and places on the show are supposed to be spelled but I'll be happy to make corrections as needed.

"Talking"

'_Thought'_

"_Singing/ recordings,"_

"_**Speaking with the Power Primate,**_"

:Comm. links.:

[Text message]

{_Mantodon language_}

* * *

While the battle raged outside, Koneko and Eclipse were huddled together in the healers' hut with their mothers and all the healers who were tending to any injured that were brought in.

The two children shivered in fear of the noise and the fighting going on outside. Artemis saw this and called them over "Kids, come here,"

Eclipse saw her mother was reaching out to her and went over to where she was checking Mandarin's bandages to make sure the poultice Surji had slipped underneath when they changed the wraps was working.

Koneko looked at her then over at his mother, who was bandaging a Kathurian that had gotten hit in the head by a Mantodon claw while the beast was in the throes of death.

Artemis looked over at Surji, asking permission, which the mother feline gave with a nod. The Purple monkey smiled at Koneko "Come on, Koneko, you too,"

The little white kitten scurried over for a much needed hug. Artemis smiled and rubbed their backs, speaking reassuringly "It's okay, everything is going to be alright,"

Just then, a set of Mantodon claws came down through the ceiling, slowly carving the roof away. Artemis shoved the children towards the exit before helping Surji and the other healers pull the injured out of the way of falling debris.

Eclipse looked back and saw her mother pulling her father to the side just before a large chunk of the ceiling landed on the mat he had been lying on. "MAMA! DADDY!"

Artemis looked over and saw her daughter trying to get to her while being held back by Koneko. She dragged Mandarin under a sturdy looking table just as more bits of the roof came raining down. "Eclipse, get out of here! Take Koneko with you and run!"

Surji crawled under another table, dragging Antauri with her since he couldn't move and everyone else had already left the building which left only him for her to worry about. "Koneko, get the girl out of here. I promise we will find you both as soon as we can,"

Eclipse looked at her parents with tears in her eyes "Mama…" she closed her eyes and let Koneko drag her outside.

Once they were outside they ran as fast as they could, but one of the Mantodons spotted them and followed the two tiny children.

Thinking fast, the two lead the monster bug to one of their traps. Carefully stepping on the branches laid across the pit they made it safely to the other side while the much heavier Mantodon fell through and impaled itself on the sharp spikes they had planted at the bottom.

The two cheered and slapped a quick high-five but their excitement was short lived when another Mantodon cornered them. The little kids backed against the side of the closest building and clung to each other, screaming in fear.

Otto jumped between them and the Mantodon holding a Gatling gun he had made out of bamboo that had been filled with rocks and some Gibson's gunpowder. "Leave them alone, you bugs!" he shot at it until it disappeared.

Eclipse hugged him, glad to see him, and he lifted her onto his back before lifting Koneko up with his tail and holding him with it.

Just when it looked like they were pulling ahead in the fight, more Mantodons came swooping down and fired energy beams at the Kathurians below, sending them scattering like… well, insects.

Sparx rushed one with his spear but it knocked him into the perimeter wall, causing it to break apart and partially bury him in bits of wood.

The Mantodon slowly advanced towards the fallen red monkey, but Nova saw him go down and was rushing over to help him. "Sparx!"

She jumped high above the Mantodon and slashed at the small of its back furiously until there was nothing left of it.

Sparx came to just in time to see her land in front of him in a defensive position, ready to fight any other Mantodons that came close. "Jeez, does a monkey have to get killed to get some attention around here?"

Nova smiled at him "No, he just has to ask," she held up her claws and leapt back into the fray while Sparx picked himself out of the debris and joined in moments later.

The second wave of Mantodons came swooping down to drive the Kathurians back towards the heart of the village where they could pen them in like lambs for slaughter.

Joke was on them, the Kathurians kept running until they lured the Mantodons within range of the cannons Gibson's team was manning.

The blue scientist lit the fuse with a small lighter in his tail—thankfully that still worked, at least—and shouted "FIRE IN THE HOLE!"

The Kathurians and the monkeys all hit the dirt and scrambled across the ground as the cannons went off and sent wooden projectiles that were filled with blasting powder at the Mantodons.

The makeshift missiles had smaller fuses on the ends of them which were lit by the fire of the initial launch and when those burnt out it set off the blasting powder, causing the missiles to explode and send wooden shrapnel flying. The Mantodons were shredded by the flying shrapnel and disappeared.

Standing next to a small hut that was near the healers' hut was Po, ready to release the boulders they had riddled with spikes and loaded into the hut to be rolled downhill to the Mantodons once the lever was pulled.

He didn't see the Queen creep up behind him and knock him away from the lever and on the ground, hard. {_You insignificant old furball! You DARE challenge ME?!_} The Mantodon leader stalked towards Po.

Unseen by anyone else, Surji and Artemis carried Mandarin and Antauri out of the hole in the wall that was made by the Mantodon that tried to pry the ceiling off to get to them.

Antauri saw that the boulders hadn't been released and tried to use his telekinesis to pull the lever down, but he only had enough strength left to make the blasted thing _twitch!_

Seeing what his brother was trying to do, Mandarin added his own power and the lever slid down, as did the grate that held the spiked covered spheres at bay.

They rolled down the hill, crushing and impaling anything that got in their way until all of the Mantodons were gone, except for one; The Queen, who stood over Po.

She looked around and saw that she stood alone against an entire village of angry Kathurian warriors and the outsiders that had taught them to fight again. She cried out for her swarm to come to her aide but none came; she had used her entire hive to attack the Kathurians and the outsiders helping them and now they were all gone.

With a shriek of rage, she fired an energy blast at Chiro. He held up his shield to take the hit but it shattered in his hand and he was thrown back.

He was about to get up and charge the Mantodon Queen with his spear when a metal sword with a green stone set into the hilt was planted in the ground next to him. He looked up and saw that it was Tikudo who thrust his sword into the ground for him to use against the Mantodon Queen.

Chiro smiled his thanks, took the sword and again he charged the Mantodon Queen.

Screaming outrage, she thrashed at him desperately as he jumped up, using the Queen's own legs as a springboard to get him higher and, channeling the Power Primate through the sword to make it stronger, drove both the spear and the sword into the Mantodon Queen's chest, spraying dark purple blood everywhere.

The Queen roared her death cry as her exoskeleton dissolved and released all of the captured energy in her body.

It took them several minutes for them to come to the conclusion "We actually did it!" but once they did they all started cheering. People were hugging and a few of them had tears of joy streaming from their eyes. A couple of them even formed a mosh pit and were throwing Sparx and Gibson in the air.

While everyone was celebrating, the lights in all the huts started to flicker on. When everyone saw this they cheered even louder.

"Well, from the looks of things with the Mantodons gone all of the energy they had taken is going back to where it was before,"

"Really?" Sparx looked down at his hands and focused "Come on, Come on…" His hands slowly shifted until they became his magnets. "Yes!"

The others tested their weapons out and were pleased that theirs worked as well. Artemis helped Mandrin hobble over to where the others were while Surji carried Antauri in her arms like a toddler. The silver monkey stirred in the Kathurian healer's arms until his eyes flickered on to glow dimly.

"Hey, he's waking up!" Chiro and the rest of the Hyperforce monkeys went over to see for themselves. "Hey, Antauri how do you feel?"

Antauri slowly reached up and rubbed his eyes tiredly. "I've been better, but I'll survive," he started to climb down to stand on his own but Gibson stopped him.

"Easy, Antauri, you're still not fully recovered yet,"

The older male Kathurian that tried to throw them out before came up to Forge. "Hello, um… Forge, Right?"

Forge looked at him skeptically "Yes, that's me, but I'm afraid I haven't gotten your name yet,"

He put a paw on his chest "Forgive me, I am Groman, I'm sorry for how I treated you and your comrades before,"

Forge smiled "I understand, there was once a time we would have done the same in your position,"

Groman smiled back "Those daggers you held earlier, may I see one?"

Hesitating, Forge took out one of his daggers and handed it to the Kathurian hilt first.

Groman looked it over expertly "It sure is a beautiful blade, how were you able to temper with the coloring like this?" he indicated the slight green coloring of the metal.

Forge smiled like a parent whose kid had gotten recognition for something great. "Thank you, I used a trick I learned from my mentor,"

Groman turned the blade around in his paw and handed it back to him hilt first. "You are a talented metalworker. I happen to be the village's Blacksmith; perhaps you could teach me a few of your tricks of the trade?"

Forge took it and bowed "I would be honored. My equipment is in the ship if you would allow me to go get it,"

Groman patted him on the shoulder "Allow me to accompany you, I can help retrieve it and I am rather curious what an alien ship looks like,"

The two smiled at each other and scurried off in the direction of the Technosimian's ship.

Chiro gave Tikudo his sword back "Thanks for letting me use your sword, Tikudo. But why did you give it to me and not try to kill the Queen yourself?"

Tikudo wiped the gore off the blade with his fingers before placing the sword back in its scabbard on his back. "It was you who helped us regain our courage and made us warriors again. You had earned the right to strike the final blow,"

Chiro smiled up at him but the smile fell a moment later. "I guess this means you guys no longer need us,"

Nikita came up and pulled him into a hug "You are welcome to stay if you want,"

Chiro looked up at her "Thanks Nikita, but as nice as that sounds we still need to get back to our primary mission, the one we were on before we came here,"

Otto trotted up with Eclipse and Koneko at his heels—the little white kitten seemed to have introduced some of the other Kathurian children to the monkeys as there were more kittens around his age running around the green monkey trying to grab his tail. "Yeah, we still gotta fix up the Robot and the Technosimians' ship too,"

The young female Kathurian looked sad her new friend was leaving "You're leaving?"

Chiro nodded sadly "Yeah, when we came here we weren't just trying to save one planet, we were trying to save the entire cosmos from a great evil. Now we need to go back out there and find him before he destroys the cosmos,"

Po limped up to them and nodded "We understand, Chiro. Since you helped us allow us to help you,"

"Really, you would do that?"

Tikudo nodded in agreement "We might not know much about building and fixing machines but we will do what we can, just tell us what to do,"

Chiro nodded "How about we all get some rest first? It's been a long night for everyone,"

No one argued, all the Kathurians went to their homes while Chiro and the monkey team slept in the torn up shell of the healer's hut after they moved the worst of the debris off of enough mats for them to sleep on.

Surji looked at them all "I'm sorry about the mess. You are welcome to stay the night in our home if you wish,"

Artemis politely waved her off. "Oh no, this is fine. We've actually stayed in worse, believe it or not, and we hate to impose,"

Surji nodded and left after making sure everyone was alright.

Everyone promptly collapsed as soon as she was gone if they hadn't already; Eclipse was curled up between her parents who were sleeping in a lover's embrace, Nova, Dyna, Forge and Sparx were all sleeping on their backs and Otto was lying face down on the mat and snoring loudly while Gibson curled up on his side with his fist partially in his mouth.

Chiro lied down on his side on a mat holding Antauri in his arms like he was a plushie. Antauri craned his neck to look up at the boy and, not wanting to wake the others, he spoke to Chiro with the Bond they had through the Power Primate "_**Chiro, I'll be fine, you don't have to watch over me when you should be resting,"**_

Still not fully understanding how the Bond worked, Chiro tentatively sent back "_**There are only a few hours left until daylight. Why should I bother going to sleep if I'm just going to have to wake up again after a while?"**_

Antauri reached up and ruffled Chiro's hair "_**All the more reason to rest while you can," **_Chiro was still hesitant and Antauri could guess why "_**Do not worry about the nightmares, Chiro. I'm here**_;_**I will help you with them,"**_

Chiro was nearing the point where he couldn't stay awake any longer. As his eyelids fluttered closed he hugged Antauri "_**Goodnight, Dad,"**_

Antauri hugged him back "_**Goodnight, Chiro. Rest well, my son," **_The two of them joined their comrades in sleep at the same time.

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_Two days later_

Chiro looked up at the Super Robot, now fully repaired. "There you go, Robot, good as new,"

Antauri hiked up the ridge to stand next to Chiro. "All systems are fully functional, including mine,"

Chiro smiled at him "Good to see you're back on your feet, Antauri,"

Gibson walked up to stand on Chiro's other side with Sparx a few steps behind him. "Yes but I have made a startling discovery. I examined the Mantadon's secretions and found they were once ordinary insects,"

Sparx saw a bug land on Gibson's head "You mean like the one on your head?"

Gibson looked up to see a bug that looked just like the Mantadons, only it was about the size of a very large grasshopper, had landed on his head. He jumped around trying to swat the bug. "AHH! I _despise _bugs!"

While Gibson was in hysterics, Antauri took it upon himself to explain what Gibson had told him while he was recovering from his system shutdown "Gibson found trace particles consistent with the Skeleton King Worm. He was the cause of the mutation that gave the Mantodons their size and ferocity,"

The others came up to join to join them "He's everywhere, he's not just destroying the cosmos, he's corrupting it,"

Chiro clenched his fist "Wherever we find Skeleton King, we'll beat him,"

They all nodded their agreement and went back to the Kathurian village to say goodbye.

_XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXAt the Kathurian village_

Nova and Dyna each shook hands with Tikudo while the taller male Kathurian smiled at them. "Nova, Dyna I will miss you,"

Nova smiled up at him "I'll miss you too,"

Dyna smiled up at him with her hands behind her back "Me too,"

She pulled a device that looked like a small laptop with a collapsible radio antenna attached to it. "Here, this is a long range communicator. You can use it to call us if you need to," she opened it up and showed him how to use it. "Just press this button and say who you want to call. Our comm. frequencies are already programmed into it so if you guys ever need anything…"

Tikudo took it and nodded. "Thank you, you have already done so much for us,"

The two female monkeys smiled and went back to where the others were waiting and waved to him one last time.

Dyna was muttering under her breath in a sing-song voice. "_I got his number… I got his number…"_

Sparx rolled his eyes "Oh for crying outloud!" both girls smacked him across the head with their tails, not even looking at him.

Mandarin stiffly walked out of the healer's hut with Artemis walking next to him in case he fell. He looked up at Surji when they passed her. "Thank you, Surji, for everything. I don't think I've ever healed this fast before in my life,"

Surji smiled "Your welcome, but the herbs I gave you only helped your body's natural healing process,"

"What was in that poultice anyway?"

"Well, let's see," Surji named off the ingredients "There was Vervain to help you rest while you healed, Yarrow to stem the bleeding, Catnip for pain relief and to keep insects away from the wound…"

"Whoa wait, catnip?" he looked around and saw a few Kathurians were sniffing the air and looking at him feverishly, a few of them gave aroused mewls. "Oh crap…" he slowly backed away before taking off as fast as he could run with stitches still in his chest in the direction of the Robot with several felines hot on his heels.

Sparx was laughing at his brother "Run, Mandarin, run!"

Nova looked over at Sparx "Uh Sparx, didn't Surji give you the same poultice when that fence came down on you?"

Sparx thought about it and realized he _did _have the same scent on him Mandarin did. "Uh… Hey, Mandarin, wait up!" he took off at a full sprint in the same direction Mandarin had gone with a few more Kathurians on his case.

While they ran through the bamboo jungle to lose their pursuers, Otto and Eclipse were saying goodbye to Koneko; Eclipse hugged him while he hugged back and Otto petted the white kitten's head, making him purr.

Thinking he'd leave his new little friend something to remember him by, Otto removed the metal cover over the tip of his tail and gave it to Koneko, who danced around holding the metal disc over his head, mewling with joy that he finally caught the shiny object he had been chasing since the monkeys arrived.

Chuckling at the cuteness, Otto picked him up "Ah, little guy…" he nuzzled him before setting him down so he could go show his mother his new shiny.

Surji was talking to Antauri, who looked up at her even though she knelt down on one knee to be closer to his level "Thank you for all your help, Surji. It was very gracious of you to treat us when so many in your village blamed us for all the trouble that had befallen them,"

Surji shook her head sadly "The Mantodons would have attacked our village regardless, they have been doing so every other night. The Mantodons just wanted an excuse to use excessive force and some of the villagers wanted someone to blame and we have all become wary of outsiders in our time under siege,"

The Kathurian healer smiled down at him "But that is all past now. If you monkeys are ever near Kathuri again don't be strangers. And I overheard Dyna give Tikudo a devise so we can communicate so if it isn't too much trouble…"

She let her question trail off but Antauri caught on and smiled "I'll be sure to call you around the time my twins are due, if that is what you wish,"

Surji nodded "Thank you, for everything,"

"Likewise,"

After almost all of the goodbyes were said, Chiro and the monkeys decided it was time for them to go. A few Kathurians escorted them, Nikita among them for she did not want to have to say goodbye until she absolutely had to.

At the foot of the Robot, Nikita said goodbye to each of the monkeys and the Technosimians, who went to their ship after saying their own goodbyes. When she got to Chiro, she reached up and removed a pendant from her neck. It was a small figurine of that statue in the village. "May Grupo be with you on your journey," she placed the pendant around his neck.

Chiro held the pendant in his hand for a moment and smiled up at her "Thank you, Nikita"

Nikita was confused, what had she done that he would be thanking her for? "For what?"

Chiro looked around at everyone gathered around them "For reminding us what really matters,"

Chiro and the Hyperforce monkeys boarded the Super Robot through the hatch in its foot and, once they made sure all of the Kathurians were clear, took off into the air to fly alongside the Technosimian's ship as the two vessels gained altitude until they breached the upper atmosphere and set course back on the trail of the Skeleton King Worm.

* * *

_**AN: Well, that's the next chapter. Sorry it took so long, now that Spring is springing up I might be busy for a while but I'll try to update when I can. **_

_**Many thanks to the people that added and reviewed: AntauriSigma, Night of StarClan, Thestral of the Night, cheesybeans, WolfGurl (Guest), Htgr8, Sami-SDGForce and one Guest review that was unnamed.**_


	12. Chapter 12

Monkey Doodle

Chapter 12

* * *

The night after the two teams left Kathuri, Antauri gathered all the other monkeys in Gibson's lab after making sure Chiro was asleep in his room.

Sparx leaned against an examination table "So, why did you feel the need to round us all up in here before bed?"

Nova nodded in agreement. "Yeah, what's this all about, Antauri?"

Antauri crossed his arms, deep in thought. "I'm not sure if you all have been keeping track of how long we have been away from Shuggazoom but I just checked the calendar earlier and… does anyone recall what the date is approximately three weeks from today?"

They all thought about it, Otto discreetly checked on Gibson's desk to see if the blue simian kept a calendar he could look at but gave up and shrugged, but Nova and Gibson's eyes widened.

"Chiro's birthday!"

"How could we have forgotten?"

Sparx crossed his arms behind his head "Well, at least I'm not the only one that forgot this year,"

Nova smacked Sparx across the head "I'm surprised you forgot last year at all,"

"I didn't know, it's not like we had a meeting about it,"

Gibson hissed in an attempt to keep form screeching at his brother "We _did _have a meeting about it last year. Just like this one. You were sitting right there, how could you forget?"

Sparx tried to think back to about a year ago.

*_Flash back*_

_Antauri had called the other monkeys into Gibson's lab about a week before Chiro's birthday since it had the most sound-proofing out of all the rooms in the Robot in case Chiro decided to wander around and over hear their plans for the boy's party._

_Sparx leaned against an examination table, polishing his magnets until they shined while Antauri talked but he tuned his older brother's voice out when the shine of his magnets became reflective and he caught a glimpse of something that was currently out of his field of vision. _

_He tilted his magnet so he could see the back of Nova's head and slowly tilted it down, taking in every visible inch and angle of her until he got to her back side and lingered there._

_While he was enjoying the show, Antauri seemed to notice the red pilot wasn't paying attention to what he should be anymore. "Sparx, what are you doing?"_

_Sparx quickly went back to cleaning his magnets. "Nothing, I'm just cleaning my magnets. They work better when there's no dirt on them, ya know?"_

_*End flash back*_

Sparx scratched his head "You know, I'm not really sure I remember…"

Artemis, who had come in after she made sure Eclipse was asleep and stood next to Mandarin, spoke up "I hope you don't mind my asking how old Chiro is going to be?"

"Fifteen,"

Artemis tapped her chin in thought "Have you thought of what you're getting him?"

Nova shrugged "We're not sure. We thought we knew what he wanted last year but found out he was more excited about some toy that just came out than what we gave him,"

Artemis snapped her fingers "I think I have an idea," they all gathered around while she told them her plan.

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_Three weeks later_

Chiro walked through the halls of the Robot, rubbing his eyes. It was still pretty early but he wanted to get an early start that morning.

Why? Because it was his birthday that day. He didn't think the monkeys remembered but he didn't mind; they have all been busy lately and after what happened on his last birthday he completely understood if they never wanted to throw him another party. But at least he could spend time with them, Right?

But something seemed off, where were the monkeys?

"Hi, Uncle Chiwo!" he looked down and smiled; normally he hated it when people got his name wrong but Eclipse was still having trouble with "R"s and he was just glad she wasn't afraid of him anymore so he really didn't mind.

"Hey, Eclipse, what have you been up to?"

She smiled and held up a piece of paper to him. "I made you a pictu',"

Chiro knelt down and balanced her on one knee and accepted the picture. "Hey, thanks. What's the picture of?"

Eclipse smiled and unfolded it for him. The picture was of the whole team standing in front of the Robot with a blue sky and a couple of trees in the background. "That's us! There's you, and Uncle 'Tauri, an' Uncle Gibby, an' Auntie Nova an'…" she named off each member of both teams, and pointed to where they were in the picture. "… But I dunno what Uncle 'Tauri's babies are gonna look like so I couldn't dwaw them,"

Chiro rubbed her back to cheer up the now frowning little monkey. "It's okay, nobody knows what they are going to look like until they are born. Thanks for the picture, I love it,"

Chiro set her down so she was standing in front of him. "Speaking of the others, do you know where everyone else is at?"

Eclipse looked around like she just realized there was no one else around. "I dunno, they doin' somethin',"

Chiro tilted his head "What are they doing?"

Eclipse looked up at him with big dark puppy eyes. "They're not doin' anythin' w'ong," she poked out her bottom lip in a pout for added measure.

Chiro raised an eyebrow. "Did they tell you to say that?"

Completely unaware of the trap set before her, Eclipse smiled and nodded "Uh huh,"

Chiro smiled back "Now I know they're up to something," he picked her up and stood up to go look for the others. "Come on, let's go,"

Eclipse squirmed and tried to get away from Chiro but he had a firm grip and he held her to his chest so she couldn't flip over his shoulder to slip out of his arms, one of which was looped underneath her bottom so she couldn't duck under his arm.

"HELP! HELP! HE'S GOT ME!"

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Nova saw what was going on with Chiro and Eclipse on the monitor and activated her comm. link. :"Gold Rush" to "Black Magic", come in "Black Magic".:

Antauri's voice came on the line. :This is "Black Magic", go ahead "Gold Rush".:

Nova smirked, at first the code words sounded ridiculous to her but they were using them in case Chiro used his own communicator to eavesdrop. :"Birthday Boy" just caught "Sunshine" and is en route to the main area. I repeat, "Sunshine" has been caught and "Birthday Boy" is en route.:

Antauri chuckled. :Understood, moving to intercept now.: he opened a third line :"Jailbreak", do you copy that?:

Mandarin's voice came on. :Loud and clear, "Black Magic", but I'm closer and I have a visual.:

:Alright, I'll let you handle this one. Standing by for backup.:

They all closed their comm. lines and set to their tasks.

Antauri looked around the room he was in—he had gone into Chiro's room to wake the boy up only to find he had already got up and went to find them. He was about to leave when he caught sight of his reflection in the full length mirror on the far wall and became curious.

Antauri stood in front of the mirror, looking at his bump from different angles. He was really starting to show now, not quite big but he was definitely showing.

The other day Otto, being Otto, made a comment about how he looked "fluffy" not really thinking about it but he didn't want to hurt his feelings so he used that choice of words rather than the other "f" word he could have said.

Sprx had made the mistake of letting the other "f" word slip yesterday when Gibson had reminded Antauri he won't be able to train at the same level as the others anymore… from what he heard they had spent the rest of the day cutting the red pilot out of the ceiling.

Antauri sighed and ran his hand across the contour of his belly, feeling little kicks from the twins. "Come on, you two. Let's go see what your big brother is up to," he walked stiffly out of the room; he was not too far from being reduced to the dreaded waddle he knew would come eventually, he planned on levitating everywhere when that time came.

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Chiro was walking down the hallway looking for the others when he was tackled from behind by someone who climbed up his back and covered his eyes. He recognized the small metallic hands as one of the monkeys so he didn't throw them off but that didn't stop him from struggling to try to see who it was. "Hey, what's going on?"

Mandarin smirked and whispered in his ear "Surprise training session,"

Chiro groaned "Ah, come on, Mandarin. It's too early for this,"

The orange monkey tightened his grip when Chiro tried to uncover his eyes. "This training exercise tests how well you can follow directions. Do you trust me to guide you through the Robot when you are unable to see for yourself where you're going?"

Chiro huffed and relaxed his stance. "Yeah, I guess so,"

"Good, take five steps forward. No, don't lengthen your stride, walk like you normally would. No feeling around with your hands! Let me guide you Chiro,"

Chiro pulled his hand back so he was holding Eclipse to his chest while Mandarin steered him down the hall.

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Chiro had no idea where in the cosmos he was going but he followed Mandarin's directions as best he could, he tried to "see without looking" like Antauri taught him but Mandarin caught him and said that defeated the purpose of the exercise.

After walking for what felt like forever, Mandarin lead him into a room and contacted Gibson. :Hey, Gibson. You guys ready yet?:

:Yes, we are ready for you to bring Chiro in.:

:Good, we're outside. Let us in:

The door opened and Mandarin guided Chiro inside. "Okay, Chiro you are doing fine. On the count of three you an open your eyes,"

Chiro could hear the other monkeys in the room while Mandarin counted "1…2…3!" Mandarin jumped down and Chiro looked around to try to get his eyes to adjust to the change in light.

All the other monkeys jumped up shouting "HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHIRO!"

Chiro looked around and saw he was in the small hanger where they kept smaller vehicles like Chiro's motorcycle. He saw that the monkeys had decorated the room with streamers and a few balloons. He also saw there was a cake off to the side and something big that was hidden under a tarp in the center of the room.

"You… you guys remembered,"

Antauri and Nova came in "Of course we remembered, Chiro. Why wouldn't we?"

Otto piped up "Sprx didn't last year,"

"Which is why we made sure he was actually paying attention at the party planning meeting we had this year and we all worked together on Chiro's present," Gibson patted the thing under the tarp.

Chiro eyed it curiously "Is that what this thing is?"

Artemis stood between Chiro and the covered item and took Eclipse from him. "Ah, ah, ah, cake first than you can open your present,"

Chiro nodded "Yes ma'am,"

They all helped themselves to some cake. Chiro noticed it had little maroon colored chunks in it. He pulled one off his fork and held it between his fingers and felt a small seed inside of it. "What are these?"

Forge looked up from his own slice of cake. "Back on Tec'jangaru there was a special fruit not found anywhere else. It was eaten on special occasions like birthdays or mating-announcement ceremonies, or as you would call them 'weddings', and we managed to save a box of them just before we left and we added bits of one to the cake," He held up his fork and examined the bite of cake he had speared on it "Although this 'cake' concept is actually new for us,"

Dyna grinned with frosting on her muzzle "Yeah, but it's good!"

After they finished eating Otto went over to Chiro's present and gripped the tarp. "Hey, Chiro, want to open your present now?"

Chiro smiled and got up "Ok"

Sprx smirked "Oh, you're going to love this one, kid,"

Chiro looked at Sprx with mock suspicion "Oh, yeah? And how would you know that Sprx?"

Nova smiled and waved her hand at everyone else in the room "We all worked together on it. Forge helped with metal work, Dyna and Otto built it with help from Artemis and Gibson. Sparx was the one that tested it out and Mandarin, Antauri and Eclipse take turns distracting you while they get everything ready and I kept a lookout from the control center in case you managed to slip past one of them,"

Chiro grabbed the edge of the tarp "Okay, guys, drum roll please…"

Sprx, Dyna, Forge and Otto pounded their hands on whatever solid surface within reach for a drum roll as Chiro pulled the tarp off.

* * *

_**AN: Thank you all you readers out there and the people that reviewed and/or added: cheesybeans; Lorrie the Ninja Elf; Sami-SDGForce; The Belles Are Ringing;**_

_**Until next time…**_

_**Hugs and Mugs,**_

_**Lady Quickshift**_


End file.
